Separation
by chainofcommand
Summary: What happened if Edward left Bella pregnant in New Moon and wasn't there to save her? Charlie and Nessie's journey through separation, loss, family drama, imprinting and the Volturi.Don't worry, Edward and Bella do get a happy ending...eventually!COMPLETE
1. Chapter 1

_So, like many others I have decided to do my own version of what happened in New Moon if Edward left and Bella found out she was pregnant. Follows SM's pregnancy in Breaking Dawn – okay, that gives a big part away but READ ANYWAY! Think this may be a little more kick-ass then you expect. I hope. Later on anyway._

_R&R or no love! Due to none reviewing of other fanfictions, I have decided to hold the other chapters hostage! (There are twelve written so far). So, ten reviews a chapter or no follow through! It's mean, I know, but they don't have to be long. They can even be nasty – critical comment is always well – just say something! Okay, whiny bitch is over, please enjoy!_

_Yes, I have nicked the beginning from New Moon – I had the idea but no clue how to start!_

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Separation

2005

'Of course, I'll always love you . . . in a way. But what happened the other night made me realise that it's time for a change. Because I'm . . . _tired _of pretending to be something I'm not, Bella. I am not human. I've let this go on much too long, and I'm sorry for that.'

'Don't. Don't do this.'

My words were too late. He already had.

'You can go on with your life without any more interference from me. It will be as if I'd never existed. Don't worry. You're human – your memory is no more than a sieve. Time heals all wounds for your kind.'

I tried to breathe normally. I needed to concentrate, to find a way out of this nightmare.

'Goodbye, Bella,' he said in the same quiet, peaceful voice.

He was gone.

Love, life, meaning . . . over.

The waves of pain that had only lapped at me before now reared high up and washed over my head, pulling me under.  
I did not resurface.

OCTOBER

NOVEMBER

DECEMBER

JANUARY

Waking Up  
Time passes. Even when it seems impossible. Even when each tick of the second hand aches like the pulse of blood behind a bruise. It passes unevenly, in strange lurches and dragging lulls, but pass it does. Even for me.

Walking into Bella's bedroom, I walked to the crib that had been squeezed next to her bed – I could not bear to throw away any of my daughter's belongings. My granddaughter, Renesmee Carlie Swan, lay sleeping soundly. Two months old as she looked more like two years. She talked, walked and thought like an adult – she was far more intelligent than me. She looked so much like her mother – same skin, same eyes. Her hair colour was her father's, but the curl to it was mine – I still found it hard to believe that any part of me could be in this perfect little girl.

Nessie's eyes fluttered open. She stretched out her arms to me, "Grandpa, up!" Reaching down, I picked the little girl up and cradle her close. I held her whenever I could. The loss of Bella was still too close and I kept thinking that I was going to lose Nessie too.

Downstairs in the kitchen the phone rang. I walked out the room, shifting Nessie in my arms so that I could hold the handrail to get down the stairs, trying not to remember the many times I had done this with Bella when she was a baby, before Renee took her to Phoenix. I wondered if that was why I was scared of losing Nessie, because eighteen years ago I had lost Bella when she was only a few months older than Nessie was now.

I picked up the phone, "Chief Swan speaking." I hated answering the phone like that – it sounded so pompous when it was my home phone – but I never knew if it would be a private call for Charlie, or an official call for Chief Swan.

"Charlie, its Billy." My old friend sounded more serious than I ever had heard him. "How are you holding up?"

"I keep getting out of bed in the morning. That's good, right?" I looked down at Nessie, bouncing her on my hip to entertain her while I was on the phone. Her hands came up to touch my face and without the gloves she had to wear out of the house on, I got the full effect of her thoughts – happy for bursts of time, but the sadness was always lurking underneath. I kissed my little girl on the forehead and made myself listen to what Billy had to say.

"Yeah, Charlie, that's really good. I remember when Sarah died, I barely got out of bed for a month, just couldn't cope. I know what you're going through."

"No offense, Billy, but I really done think you do. You loved Sarah, you still do, but she was your wife, not your kid." I took a deep breath, knowing I should not, but God, I was so sick of being told everyone frigging understood – they do not. I don't understand so how the hell are they supposed to? "Imagine Jacob was your only kid, Sarah had left you, Rach and Becky hadn't been born. Imagine you finally got Jake back to live with you properly and then, less than a year after having the most important person to you return, they die. You are left worse off than before – not just lonely knowing your kid is being raised by your wife and some other guy, but that they're gone forever. That if they had never come to live with you, if you had never got your heart's desire, they would still be alive.  
"You still know how I feel, Billy?"

There was silence on the other end of line. I felt bad about taking it out on my best friend, but it felt good to finally be able to say what I had been thinking, that Bella's death was my fault. As her father, I should have protected her better.

"No, Charlie, I guess I don't know what you're going through." Billy sighed.

"I'm sorry, Billy, I don't mean to take it out on you. I know you want to help. It's just really hard, you know?" And I just wanted to offload some of the pain that was killing me onto someone else. Make someone else hurt for a while.

"Yeah, I know. I also know you shouldn't go through it alone. I know Jacob and I didn't really know Bella, but from what you told me about her, she sounded like someone really special."

"She was, Billy, she really was." I could feel the tears creeping up on me. It was hard to talk through the lump in my throat. I felt a tear slide down my cheek, only to be brushed away by a hot little hand. Nessie pondered the tear on the tip of her finger before laying her head on my chest. She gripped my shirt – she was too small to put her arms around my neck. Coughing in a feeble effort to clear my throat, I said, "Billy, er . . . I need to go. I have stuff to do." 'Stuff' being boxing up Bella's belongings. I did not want to get rid of Bella's stuff but I could not keep it where it is. Nessie's stuff needed space, too. Baby paraphernalia was stuffed wherever I had the room. As much as I hated it, Bella's stuff had to be moved so I could look after Nessie properly.

Billy seemed to understand what I meant without being told. "Need any help? Me and Jacob could come over – I'll bring beer." He tried to joke, but neither of us laughed.

"Thanks, Billy, but I really need to do this alone." Besides, he could not bring enough beer to make me okay with what I had to do today.

"Charlie, you need to get out of the house. You haven't left in months and no one had been allowed over to see you. You shouldn't be alone right now."

And what happens when he sees a two year old that my daughter gave birth to two months ago? Gave birth to being lying there screaming as the baby clawed its way out of her. No one had come over because I could not hide the evidence of Nessie's existence. How was I supposed to explain that my daughter had died giving birth to a half-human, half-vampire hybrid that aged exponentially and had supernatural powers? I had trouble believing it myself. Bella had told me everything during her pregnancy – it only lasted two months, she could not go to school and I took time off work once I saw how quickly things were progressing, so there was not a lot else to do but talk.

"Give me time, Billy. I got some stuff I have to do."

The silence on the other end was tense this time. "Charlie . . . you're not going to do anything . . . stupid are you?"

"Like kill myself?"

"I just . . . you're all alone, you don't go to work. No one sees you anymore, Charlie."

I pondered this for a moment, a truly insane, but very tempting idea forming in my brain. "Tomorrow is Saturday, yeah?"

"Yeah, it is." Billy sounded hopeful.

"I come see you for the basketball game, how about that? I think there's something I should show you anyway."

"Sounds great, Charlie." Billy sounded genuinely pleased. I wondered if he would still be happy after meeting Nessie.

"See you tomorrow, Billy. Tell Jacob I said hi."

"Will do, Charlie." We hung up and I sat at the kitchen table so that I could sit Nessie on the top. I loved the kid, but two year olds were heavy. Nessie touched my cheek with her hand again. The first time she had done this I had completely freaked out. Bella was lying there dead, her blood pooling around her and this blood-covered child touched my cheek and I _saw . . . _ saw how much Nessie loved Bella, how much pain she was in knowing she had done this. From that moment I could not hate my granddaughter. I could not hate anyone that loved Bella as much as that.

Except for Edward fucking Cullen. If I could shoot that kid and it would kill him, I would.

This time though, the thought was a question. _Where are you going?_ She sounded (felt?) concerned. _Grandpa not leaving me? Like mama._ The last bit slipped out before Nessie could take her hand away and I pulled her close to me, trying to hug comfort into the tiny, tough body.

"I'm not leaving you, kid. We are going to see Billy. Bella figured out what your daddy was because of what Jacob told her. Maybe Billy will know what . . . what you are."

_And what's going to happen to me?_

I nodded. "Hopefully." Bella's biggest concern was that because Nessie grew so fast that she would die early, become an old lady before I was an old man.

Maybe Billy would know what the future held.


	2. Chapter 2

_Ok, now this is established and I have my claws into you I will hold the following chapters hostage for only a mere five reviews a chapter. For the first chapter, because I REALLY wanted to get the next chapter up there I decided that favouriting and story alerts count too._

_I think I may change the summary to this story because telling them outright that Edward and Bella aren't together from the beginning seems to put people off. It's a shame 'cause then they miss the ending! (which I've already written – it was actually the first thing I wrote)._

_Okay, I'll let you go._

_Read and review or no next chapter!_

_Thanks to XxBluexX, Black Phoenix-2009, XFriedxRiceX, and fosbta999 for your wonderful reviews – I'm glad you gave it a chance and hope you will not be disappointed!_

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We spent the day in the garden. I sat on a duvet on the grass, watching as Nessie chased butterflies. She was unnaturally fast, but it did not freak me out as much as before. There was a grace about Nessie that was fascinating to watch – physically two years old and she moved like a ballerina. About seven o'clock, Nessie wondered over to me, yawning and rubbing her eyes tiredly. She curled herself up on to my lap.

"Tired?" She nodded, her eyes closed. "Okay, kid. Let's go." I sat up carefully so I did not jiggle Nessie too much. I took her inside for bath and bed. She looked like a completely normal two year old in the bath – she was having too much fun splashing around and playing with rubber ducks to use any hybrid vampiric powers. She looked up at me, a grin on her sweet face and offered me a duck. My heart thumped painfully as I thought that it was Bella who should be here, making ripples in the water with her fingers to the entertainment of her child.

Tucking her into her crib, I picked up this week's story book – the Chronicles of Narnia, Prince Caspian. I was reading C. S. Lewis to a two month old. Sometimes I had to shake my head at how normal the abnormal felt after the last four months. I did not read these books to Bella until she was seven.

After two chapters, Nessie was too asleep to listen anymore. Kissing her forehead, I tucked the blankets around her and switched off the light, leaving the nightlight spotting the walls with moons and stars. I had moved the crib into my room for the night so I could deal with Bella's room without disturbing her.

I made it ten minutes before the tears started. I was clearing out her closet and a box of CDs fell from the shelf at the top onto my foot. They spilt all over the floor and suddenly I was sobbing over the mess and pain this inconsequential accident had caused. I kept apologising over and over to Bella, not even sure what I was apologising for – dropping her CDs or letting her die. In the bottom of the closet was a black plastic bag straining with whatever was stuffed inside. Pulling it out, the bag split and out fell what appeared to be a tortured car stereo with crusty, red splotches here and there. On closer inspection I saw the blotches were bloody finger prints. Bella had not liked her present, then.

Picking it up, I hurled it across the room, suddenly furious. The stereo hit the side of the desk and rebounded to hit a floorboard. It bounced and the floorboard popped up. Crossing the room, I grabbed the loose floorboard and pulled. It came away easy and in the space underneath there was a CD in a blank jewel case, several photos - all of them had Edward Cullen in them – and a flat, rectangular box. Opening this I saw a couple of pieces of paper covered in small print. Reading it, it took me a while to figure out that it was a voucher for plane tickets to Jacksonville.

I walked to Bella's desk and took the photo album that had lain there since November. Bella had been looking at it the day she had gone into labour. I had not touched it since she had lain it down. Opening the album I saw that the photos matched the labels underneath empty metal tags. I put them back into their proper places, stroking the messy handwriting and the Bella in the photos, the only reminders that I had that Bella had once been real and alive. These days it felt like she could have been a figment of my imagination. Everything had more on so quickly it felt like I had not really had a chance to grieve properly, I had just dealt with whatever I had had to at the time.

I looked through the next lot of photos. These were of her school friends. I saw different happy, smiling teenagers and I hated them. Why were they still alive and my Bella was not? Why had one of them not fallen in love with that bastard, Cullen? Why had Bella not fallen in love with one of them instead? Looking at one boy, I recognised him as Mike Newton. How different would things have been if Bella fell in love with him instead? Even if Bella had gotten pregnant, she would only be four months gone right now. She would still be at school, the father would not have run off because his brother tried to kill her, and she would not have died in the birth.

The kid might have got a half normal name, too.

Reaching the last of the photos, I saw the ones of Bella during her pregnancy. I had taken a picture of her every other day, but, going by baby bump size, they seemed to be weeks apart. My favourite picture was from the day before she died. It was a candid shot of Bella on the sofa; her hands were cradling her belly and she was looking down at it with such a look of love. I supposed that is why I love it – it was proof that Bella had made the right decision, not let the decision make her. There was no way to have terminated the pregnancy and Bella had known it would kill her. But still she had loved her baby while she could. She had made me love her baby, too.

I had to, there was no one else. Renee and Phil never would have been able to cope, I had no idea where the Cullens were and we had no other family. My parents had died not long after Bella's birth. They had never met their granddaughter – they did not approve of Renee and me getting married when I was nineteen and they certainly did not approve of us becoming parents less than a year later. Renee's father had died when she was a teenager, a few years before we met and her mother had died when Bella was twelve. I was all that was left.

I was tired of hurting. I grabbed the boxes and started shoving in the clothes and the books. Her school stuff had been packed away a long time ago; when she looked four months pregnant after three weeks we knew she could not go back. I phoned the school to say Bella was sick. She had not been at school for the week because Edward had broken up with her so I told them she would not be coming back. They had asked if she would be okay. I had said I did not know. She had not gone back and I had phone at the end of November to say Bella would not be returning to school. They already knew – the administrators had found out from the students that had gone to Bella's funeral. A sweet girl, Angela, had introduced herself and talked to me for a while about Bella. Another one, Jessica, had joined in, but she did not seem to know Bella as well as Angela did – she struck me as rather superficial. Mike Newton and a few other boys seemed upset as well – I think Mike's feeling for Bells went deeper than she had ever given him credit for.

Finally, it was time for me to go to bed. The boxes were in the attic and my back was killing me. It was past midnight and I tried to go to bed quietly but when I was halfway across the room, Nessie's small voice reached me.

"Grandpa?"

Crossing to the cot, I looked down at my granddaughter. Her deep brown eyes were focused on me – so much like Bella's. I rubbed her stomach, trying to soothe her back to sleep. "I'm here, Nessie. Shh, love, go back to sleep."

"Night, night, Grandpa." Her eyelids fluttered closed and her breathing quickly became deeper.

"Night, night, sweetheart." Night, night, Bells.

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_I always thought Charlie was the kind of guy that would rise to the occasion, he's a sweetie!_


	3. Chapter 3

_You guys are so awesome for reviewing! And they're all so positive, yay!_

_Thanks to AndromedaGabriella, Twilightfan000001 and zanyehuan for your reviews!_

_Special thanks to XFriedxRiceX and Black-Phoenix-2009 for reviewing both chapters – you guys rock!_

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The next morning was rough. I dragged the cradle back into Bella's room – it looked so much emptier in the light of day. The bed had been dismantled and put into the attic as well; now just the mattress was left, propped up against the wall. Nessie walked into the room and looked around. She sat in the middle of the floor and I watched in horror as the tears slid down her peaches-and-cream skin.

"Mama's all gone now." The voice was quiet, I could barely hear her. I walked over and sat on the floor next to her.

"She's still a part of you, and still a part of me. That will never change, baby girl, I promise." She leant against me and I put my arm around her tiny body. We sat there for I do not know how long, absorbing it all. The room did not seem right without all Bella's belongings.

After a while, I remembered I had to be stronger than this. Scooping Nessie up, I walked out of the room and out of the house without looking back. I got into the car and drove faster than I would normally have to Billy's, trying to get away from that damn room.

I unsnapped Nessie from the car seat and carried her and the baby bag to the front door. Knocking on the door, I whispered to Nessie, "No powers, okay? Keep the gloves on." She tugged the tiny linen gloves that kept her powers to herself and nodded.

She nodded and laid her head on my shoulder. There was a weight on her shoulders that never should have been there. I blamed myself – I had been doing that a lot in the last few months. When Billy opened the door, his gaze went from me to Nessie and his mouth fell open.

"Uh, Charlie, good ... good to see you. Come on in." He wheeled backwards so that we could come in.

"Thanks for inviting us over, Billy – even if you didn't know it was 'us'." I walked into the living room and set Nessie on the floor. The baby bag went down next to her and I pulled out a pack of cards and handed them to her. Billy's eyes bugged as Nessie quietly began to play solitaire. "We need to talk, Billy."

"Clearly." Billy did not seem to be having a good day. He wheeled into the kitchen and took a beer out of the fridge. He offered me one; I looked over at Nessie before accepting – I needed a beer to get through what I had to say.

"What do you know about the Cullens?" I looked down at the beer bottle in my hand.

Billy seemed equally fascinated by the condensation of his own bottle and would not meet my eyes. "What does it matter? They're gone."

"You all hate them down here, and I think there's more to it than they had lots of money. You know more than you're telling, Billy, and now you're gonna tell me."

"Charlie, I'll admit, we weren't . . . welcoming to the Cullens. But they never came down here either. Some people just don't mix. La Push and the Cullens don't mix."

"It's more than that and you know it." My voice was sharper than it had ever been with Billy and he noticed it. He eyed me warily before saying, "it doesn't matter, Charlie. They're not coming back. Besides, you'd never believe me if I told you."

Looking through the doorway to the living room to where Nessie sat, still playing solitaire, I said, more to me than Billy, "you have no idea what I would believe these days."

"You won't like it, finding out who your daughter got involved with." Billy's voice held a note of authority that I had rarely heard him use – he was trying to warn me off, sure he was about to shatter my view of the world.

"You mean about my daughter falling in love with a vampire? I already know, Billy." There was a clunk and, turning to face Billy once more, I saw that he had dropped his bottle onto the table. He snatched it up before it spilt too much and I grabbed a dishcloth to wipe up what had spilled.

When the mess was cleared away, we continued as though there had been no interruption. "So, you know about the Cullens being vampires, huh? What do you want to know from me?"

"I know everything Bella knew; now I want the same from you. I reckon Cullen kept a lot of things from her – trying to protect her, wanting to distance her from his world or something."

"What I know are legends, old stories, passed down through the tribe's history. That's all." I did not believe him – there was a look in his eye that made me think there was more going on here, maybe something going on right now, that he did not want to tell me. I told him so.

"That's bullshit, Billy." I did not bother to lower my voice, Nessie would hear me anyway and she had heard more from the constantly arguing neighbours. "You don't think they are just stories – that's why you hated the Cullens. Because they were a threat you thought your tribe had gotten rid of nearly a century ago. You thought your grandfather, Ephraim Black, had dealt with the Cullens. But then they came back. You knew what Bella was getting herself into and you never told me."

"It wasn't your place, Charlie, you didn't have to know." His voice was pleading, begging me to understand, but I could not.

"I was her father, Billy! Of course it was my place! If you had told me I could have done something! As her father I could have done something! It's your fault Bella died!"

Billy looked stricken, his russet skin paled. I did not mean it, but it felt so good to blame someone else for a change. My anger faded as quickly as it had come and I was faced with my oldest friend, hurt by what I had said. Suddenly, I felt tired and not so sure I was up to this anymore. I ran my fingers through my hair and leant my head on my hands. Taking a moment, I then rested my chin on my hands and looked at Billy. He kept opening his mouth, before closing it, unsure of how to make this okay. "Billy, I'm sorry. I didn't mean that. I just . . . I've had only myself to blame for Bella's death for the last two months. I guess I just wanted to blame someone else for once."

Billy nodded, "I blamed myself, too. For Sarah. I was so sure that if I had just offered to drive her, she would still be here. When I found that Jake had been arguing with his mom on the phone I yelled and yelled at him. My wife died because some guy ran a red light and I made my son cry, two weeks after he lost his mother." Billy looked like he was about to cry, too. "What would Sarah have said, if she saw that? Me screaming at our son, blaming him for the worst thing that ever happened to him?"

"She would have said you were an idiot and you were hurting. Then she would have told you both she loved you. That was just how she was."

Billy nodded. "Yeah, that's how she was. You're supposed to blame yourself, you know, otherwise, in the darkest moments of our lives, we have to admit maybe we can't control the universe. Maybe random things just happen and we can't do anything to stop them."

"I couldn't have saved Bella," I finally said it. "As her father, I would have done anything to save her, but she wouldn't do anything to save herself."

Billy was puzzled, "she let herself die? From what?"

"I'll tell you, after you tell me what you know."

Billy sighed, weakening. "It sounds like you know a lot of it already, maybe some stuff that we don't. Vampires are real. So are werewolves and shape shifters." Billy looked up to see how I was taking this. Instead of fainting, which is what he probably expected, I just nodded, so he continued. "Vampires are strong, fast and dangerous. They drink the blood of humans, though some, like the Cullens only drink the blood of animals."

"If they only drink the blood of animals, then they are not dangerous to humans. So why do you hate them?"

"Their instinct; their thirst is for human blood. Even if they live on animal blood, they still have the thirst. They try to be civilised but there is always the chance of them losing it and attacking someone, which is far easier if they live around humans."

"Which Bella found out the hard way, on her birthday," I muttered.

Billy looked confused so I explained. "Bella got a paper cut at the Cullens of her birthday. Edward's brother, Jasper, the newest 'convert', attacked her but they managed to hold him back. What might have happened is why they left – Bella said the incident made Edward realise he didn't want to pretend to be human anymore. But I think he was trying to protect her from being dinner."

Billy looked unconvinced but nodded.

"Where's Jacob?" I looked around, only just noticing that the rapidly stretching form of Jacob Black was not here. Billy looked shifty again, "that doesn't matter. He's out."

"Billy." I looked hard at him again. He looked at the table before meeting my gaze again. He was beginning to understand that I would not be lied to, or leave before I was satisfied I knew all he had to tell me.

"He's changing."

"He's a teenager."

"Charlie, an unforeseen side effect of vampires around Forks is that . . . well, the Quileutes as descended from wolves, right? That's how the stories go. When there is a threat to the tribe from vampires, the current generation of men – that is, those of fighting age – develop the ability to turn into giant wolves." I took a swig of beer. I was expecting information on vampires, not 'my son changes into a wolf'. I remembered Billy's earlier comment – "'shape shifters are real, too.'"

"Excuse me?"

"Werewolves are the only creatures that can kill vampires."

"So, the Cullens turning up set off your boys turning into lycanthropes?"

"No, our tribe aren't really werewolves, they're shape shifters. They can change at will, not according to the lunar cycle."

"Yay for them. Why are they changing if the Cullens are gone?"

"Some things that are set into motion cannot be stopped."

"How many so far?"

"Sam Uley was first – he was the oldest. Then Paul Wright. Jared Lane followed soon after. Embry Call was a few months ago – near the beginning of the school year. Jacob began changing in November, Quil Aetera not long after. Harry's boy, Seth, should be next, but he's still a little young; he's only fourteen."

"So that's six so far, maybe seven within what – a year?"

"Depends. If there isn't any more vampire activity, Seth and the rest could be spared completely."

"Spared?" It did not sound like they altogether enjoyed their heritage.

"It's a lot of responsibility to be a Protector. It means a lot of changes, your life takes a direction you didn't expect and couldn't prepare for, and there's nothing you can do to stop it."

"You don't have a choice?"

Billy shook his head. "It's a lifelong sentence. Rather a long life sentence – you mature in a couple of months and then don't age."

"You don't age? At all?"

"Not until you stop shifting for a substantial length of time."

"The boys won't age – like the Cullens," I observed.

From the look on Billy's face he did not appreciate the comparison. "Our boys aren't like them. Once they have killed the vampires they can age normally again, have normal lives again. The Cullens will always be ageless, bloodsucking freaks."

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_Uh oh! Things aren't looking good for Charlie and Nessie!_

_I think I've found my genre writing angst/hurt. Is that a good thing, or just depressing? :P_


	4. Chapter 4

_Okay, chapter four – here we go! Thank you everyone for your reviews – you guys are amazing. As always, I hope you enjoy this chapter and please let me know what you think._

_I'm trying to improve my writing style so any comments you have about that are also very welcome. _

_Let the Charlie-ness continue!_

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Freaks, huh? Maybe I had come to the wrong place for help with Nessie. Standing up I said, "I should be going, Billy."

He looked surprised at the sudden change in conversation. "But . . . you only just got here. I thought you wanted answers about the Cullens."

"I don't care about the Cullens. And I don't think you have the answers I want." I walked out of the kitchen and over to Nessie. She gathered the cards together and put them in the pack that was too large for her small hands. I wanted to help but her movements were too quick and soon she was putting the cards in the bag. I slung the bag over my shoulder and picked her up. "Thanks for the beer, Billy, I'll see you around."

"You can't go. There's so much that we haven't talked about." He followed me as I walked to the front door. "Like whom that kid in your arms is." That stopped me short. I turned around slowly.

"Why are you so interested in Nessie?"

"Charlie, I know that Bella meant the world to you, but you can't replace her."

I squeezed Nessie too tight and she squirmed in my arms, trying to loosen my grip. I murmured an apology and buried my head in her hair for a moment. Her arms came as far around my neck as they could and we stood there for a moment, trying to block out the world. I faced Billy, "I'm not trying to replace Bella, Billy. Nessie is my responsibility and I can't leave her. I'm all she's got."

"Come on, Charlie, sit back down. I've told you what I have to tell; now it's your turn." He wheeled away, certain I would follow him.

He was right. I sighed and Nessie looked at me, worried. "Don't worry, kid. Everything will be okay. This is what we're here for after all." She rested her head on my chest and I walked to the sofa and took a seat.

"So, Billy rested his arms on the arms of her wheelchair. "Who's the kid?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"I just told you my son can change into a gigantic, immortal wolf, and you think I won't believe you?"

"What I'm going to tell you is, I think, unprecedented. I can't be sure, I'm new to this. And I don't have hundreds of years of tribal law to help me out.  
Nessie is Bella's daughter."

"Did she come up from Phoenix?"

"No, Bella didn't have her in Phoenix, and we haven't been hiding her in the house for the past year. Bella gave birth to Nessie two months ago. The labour killed her."

"I killed Mama." Nessie's voice was heartbreaking – quiet and sorrowful. Billy looked at the little girl, shocked.

"Nessie is two months old. Bella was full term after two months of pregnancy, but didn't survive the birth. Nessie grows at a rapid rate – rather like your boys. She has the mental capacity of an adult – a smart adult. She was walking and talking after a week."

"What is she?"

"Half human, half vampire. Her father was Edward Cullen."

Billy looked paler than he had ever looked before. "A vampire-human hybrid? An abomination."

My voice was hard as I said, "my grandchild."

"Charlie, it shouldn't exist."

"Well, _she _does." I didn't like the way the conversation was going. I would give Billy time to calm down, but if his tone didn't change soon, I was going to have to leave.

"Charlie. Charlie, what have you done?"

"I didn't do anything!" We were both getting angry. Nessie shrank back into the sofa. "I looked after my family! I couldn't stop this anymore than you could stop Jacob!"

"My son isn't an abomination!"

"My granddaughter isn't a freak!"

"I guess there's nothing to say then!"

"Yeah, I guess we're done!" I snatched up the bag and Nessie and stormed out.

"Grandpa, you're hurting me." Nessie was pushing against my shoulders, trying to get me to relax my grip.

"Sorry, sweetheart." I buckled her into her car seat and tore off without looking at Billy's house. I never thought things between me and Billy would end, not like this. I drove for a while, out of Forks onto the highway. Nessie was quiet in the backseat; she seemed to know I needed silence. I took the first exit of the highway with no idea where I was. I kept driving for a while, until there was a service station. I parked and sat in the bay with the engine off. I lent my head against the head rest and closed my eyes. The anger I have felt towards Billy was draining away and was replaced with sadness. First I'd lost my daughter, now I lost my best friend – the person who was there for me the most when Renee took Bella away, and in the intervening years before Bella came back. Billy had become family at a time when mine had left me. The fight we had had about the Cullens after they first arrived was the worse we had ever had. We had not really seen each other for a couple of months and it was bad, lonely - and I do not get lonely. But the feeling that I could not pick up the phone just to talk to Billy had made me feel isolated.

The feeling now was a thousand times worse. Then I had known that the fight would blow over – we were fighting over a bunch of people neither of us really knew, it was a difference in opinion that did not really matter. Now though, we had attacked each other's family, the choices we had had made for us. Some lines even the closest of friends knew not to cross and bringing each other's kids into the argument was one of them.

"Grandpa, can we eat?" Nessie was fussing slightly in the back seat. She did not eat as often as I did – at first she had only really fed on blood (which met uncomfortably frequent trips to the butchers. I was asked if I was a Satanist before I learnt to keep changing stores.). Now, she ate a couple of meals a day, usually having an exceedingly rare steak for dinner. I had taken her to the local diner in Forks for dinner once. Apart from the initial stares and whispers when Chief Charlie Swan, father of recently deceased Bella Swan, had turned up with a supposedly 18 month old baby, the most uncomfortable moment of the evening had been when I had ordered the very rare steak for her and she had tucked into it with relish, mopping up all the bloody juices with her chips. Since then, I had fed her at home.

"Yeah, baby girl, we can eat." I moved slowly, fresh despair adding to the sorrow to weigh me down. I opened the door and Nessie jumped out, having undone the car seat buckles while I was sat feeling sorry for myself. Taking her small hand in my much larger, tanned (comparatively speaking) one, I led her into the diner.

We took a booth by the window – Nessie liked to people watch. The waitress came over and started to talk to Nessie. She listened patiently to the inane chatter, not pointing out that she had been more intelligent than this woman since she was a week old. She understood the situation, even if it irritated her somewhat. We ordered straight away – the less visits from the waitress the better. She patted Nessie on the head. When she turned away Nessie snapped her teeth at her playfully in return for the patronising behaviour. I frowned at her, not really meaning it. She knew that so she grinned at me. I shook my head, smiling at the impish personality Nessie was developing. Quiet but playful, a good kid. If only I could get Billy to understand that, that it was _who _she was that mattered, not _what_. Nessie would never hurt anyone, she did not _kill_. The one time someone had died, Nessie had not meant or wanted the outcome, it was inevitable, from the moment Edward Cullen put his hands on my daughter. It was _his _fault, not my grandchild's – she was an innocent. _He was the monster. _

The meal was short; we never lingered in public. We drove back to the house and I was backing into the driveway when Nessie said, "Grandpa, the phone's ringing."

"Okay, kid, let's go grab it!" I tried to make my voice as upbeat as possible but the truth was I was nervous. Nervous of who it could be. What if it was Billy? What if it was not?

It was Sue Clearwater. Strange – I was good friends with her husband, Harry Clearwater, but I never really got called by Sue. "Hey, Sue. You okay?"

"Charlie, there's a council meeting tonight. The elders need to talk."

"Okay . . .?" I did not know why Sue was telling me – I was not a Quileute, I did not even live in La Push, so any kind of ruling they made could not possible affect me . . . could it?

"Charlie, the elders want you to come to this meeting. It's important. Billy said you had more information about the Cullens. It could help the boys fight the other vampires that pass through." Sue sounded uncomfortable. The hair on the back of my neck rose – something was going on. I better find out what.

"Sure, I'll be there. Where do you want me?"

"La Push Town Hall. You know how to get there?"

"Yeah, Sue, I know it."

"Okay, they'll expect you at eight."

"Tell them I'll be there."

"Okay. And Charlie?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks." The pause made it clear this is not what she had wanted to say.

Creepy bad feeling went up a couple of notches. "Sure, Sue, no problem." After the obligatory goodbyes that, contrary to TV and film did still happen, we hung up.

"Okay, kid. We have an issue." I turned to Nessie who was sat at the kitchen table.

"You can leave me here alone." She did not bother to pretend that she could not hear bother sides of the phone conversation clearly.

"Nessie, you're two months old."

"Physically, I'm two years old. Mentally, I'm only a little younger than you. I can handle any situation, though I admit my stature does limit my access to the medicine cabinet." She lent her elbows on the table and laced her fingers together, looking me in the eye to talk.

I had to laugh at the words coming out the tiny girl's mouth. "And what happens when someone comes to the front door to find a supposed two year home alone?"

Her brow furrowed. "The most obvious answer would be not to open the door. Should they come in anyway, their forcible entry would suggest that they aim would be to steal. A two year old would not be an inconvenience."

"Except this two year old is indestructible and would probably to attempt to psychoanalysis them."

"The need to steal would suggest more deep seated emotional issues. Talking may help."

"Talking to you would push them over the edge."

"No one would believe them." She gave a cute evil smile. "Therapy might help them."

I leant on my arms, leaving forward, "you, my dear, are evil."

She shrugged, "I am half vampire." I laughed, ruffling her hair before kissing her head.

In the end, I took her with me. She agreed to sleep in the car with a baby monitor. With any other child I would never do this, but Nessie was not any other child.


	5. Chapter 5

_Wow! Sixteen reviews on one chapter – that's my best yet! Either that or my maths is off, which is also possible._

_Keep up the reviewing, guys, you really are fantastic!_

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Walking into the Hall I could not miss the sombre, tense atmosphere. The Council of Quileute Elders sat on one side of a long table: Quil Aetera Senior, Harry Clearwater, Billy and Sam Uley. Sam did not look old enough to be there – the next youngest was Harry at 46. At twenty, Sam should only be half way through college – yet, here he was, sitting with the others like he belonged there.

"Charlie, it is good of you to come." As the eldest, it was Quil Aetera's privilege to have the first word.

"Thanks, though I don't know why I'm here."

"Billy relayed to the Council the conversation you have will him earlier today."

I looked over at Billy, rage building up. He was looking down at the table. Next to Billy, Harry looked at me. He looked immeasurably sad. Sam Uley looked pissed. I realised Aetera was just going through the motions – they knew everything and were about to drop the bomb.

I was right.

I was betrayed. By my oldest friends.

"Charlie, is the child you brought to Billy Black's house this morning your grandchild?"

"Yes." I would give them no more or less than the question required – I was not going to help them hang me but, for Nessie's sake, I could not afford to be uncooperative. Not if I wanted them to listen to my side.

"Is the child the daughter of your own daughter, Isabella Swan?"

"Bella," I said automatically. "And yes."

"And the father of the child in question is the vampire Edward Cullen, correct?"

"Correct."

"Bella was killed during the labour, yes?"

"She died during the labour, yes." I closed my eyes and for a moment I saw Bella. She was pale and sweating, in so much pain she was delusional – she thought Edward had come to see his baby. There was a tearing sound and Bella gasped. Looking down at her torso, her body was covered in blood. Reaching out, I helped the gore-covered baby out of the mess. Bella reached for her, whispering, "Renesmee." I got the baby into her arms. They had barely fastened around the tiny body before they fell away. Wrapping the baby in a towel I placed her in the crib before racing over to Bella.

She was gone. Her glassy eyes stared blindly, a soft smile on her face. Finally, she was happy. Her baby was alive and she was beyond any kind of pain. The rest of the world disappeared as my knees gave out. I fell on my knees, cradling Bella's body, sobbing.

I sighed, opening my eyes. Billy had looked finally looked up at me. His face was lined with pain; I found I did not care. I was beyond feeling sorry, feeling sympathy for anyone else's pain – I had my own to deal with.

"Did the child kill her?"

"It wasn't Nessie's fault – she could not have helped it. Bella knew she wouldn't survive the birth but she wanted the baby."

"Was there any way of terminating the pregnancy?"

"I don't know, Bella wouldn't talk about it."

"So, she wanted the child."

"She always wanted Nessie."

"Even if it cost her her life?

"That's what being a parent means."

"The thing had to be destroyed. It has broken the truce." This statement came from Sam Uley, Head Wolf Boy. The only one here who had never been a parent.

"Sam!" Harry spoke sharply.

Apparently, upfront confrontation was not the Council's agenda. May be they wanted to persuade me into letting them kill Nessie. "You are not going to destroy anyone!"

"Charlie, please, calm down." Quil Senior was trying to take control of a situation that was rapidly falling apart.

"Calm down! You want to kill my granddaughter and you're telling me to fucking calm down!"

"Charlie –"

"Billy, shut up! This is your fault." Tears burned my eyes. "How could you? You were my best friend! I told you because I thought I could trust you! I thought you could help me! I would never have done anything like this to you!"

"I know, Charlie." Billy stared at me beseechingly. His tone implored me to understand, but I could not. Bringing family into arguments was one thing, planning to kill them was beyond forgivable. "But I don't have a choice! We must protect our tribe!"

"Nessie is not dangerous!"

"She killed her mother at birth!"

"She's just a child! And Bella's not the first to die in childbirth."

"She is the first to be ripped apart by the baby."

"If she can kill from the womb, we need to think about what she is capable of later on." Aetera was trying to steer the conversation again. He may have been old and frail as hell, but, god, I wanted to punch him.

Instead I curled my hand into a fist and kept it at my side – must not lose control. "She's not capable of anything later on! Yes, she did kill Bella, but there was no other way of her getting out – it wasn't a conscious choice. She won't kill anyone else. She doesn't need to – I can feed her animal blood, bought from the butcher. She doesn't even have to kill animals; she is no danger to people! I taught her better than that!"

"What if one day, she decides not to listen?"

"She doesn't want to hurt anyone. Even if I wasn't there, Nessie doesn't have a malicious bone in her body."

"Even if she doesn't want to hurt anybody, someday, she will. She could easy lose control and hurt or kill someone." Another understanding statement from Mr Uley. This kid was beginning to piss me off. I was _not_ about to lose my granddaughter to some guy I could arrest for underage drinking.

"You would know all about that, wouldn't you, Sam?" Low blow, but I was not going to back down now. They had drawn the lines here, I was just walking them.

Sam paled at the mention of his girlfriend, Emily. He would never forgive himself for the injuries he had inflicted on her. I would never forgive myself if I let them get Nessie. Me and Sam, we were not so different, could have even got along, probably, at one time. Pity we were on such different sides of the game.

"Cheap shot, Charlie," Harry said.

"Cheap, but fair. He comes after my family, I'm going after his." I was tired of this. I got up to leave. "This is over. I'm taking my granddaughter home."

"No, Charlie, you're not." Quil Aetera was looking at something behind me.

I spun around.

"I'm sorry, Charlie." Billy's voice cracked as he said my name. There were raised voices and the sounds of struggle from outside. The door to the hall opened and two men walked in. They were walking strangely, the one in front walking backwards.

I soon found out why. They were holding a writhing Nessie between them; the one walking backwards had a hold of her ankles, other one had his arms locked under her armpits.

"Nessie!!" I made to move towards them but I had barely taken a step before steel-muscled arms locked around me.

"Calm down, Charlie," it was Uley's voice in my ear.

"Grandpa, help me!" Nessie was crying and those monsters holding her were not even reacting.

"Let her go, you bastards! You're hurting her!"

"Grandpa, please! Don't let them hurt me. Grandpa –" The rest of what she was saying was drowned out by her sobs.

Sam Uley dragged me backwards, away from the two thugs carrying Nessie towards the Council.

"Charlie, please believe me. This isn't what it looks like!" Billy cried.

"It looks like you're trying to kidnap my kid!" I yelled back.

"They weren't supposed to use force. She must have fought back," Uley said.

"Imagine that, a small child fighting back when two thugs drag her out of her car at night." I spat.

"They would never hurt her unless there was a reason. I ordered them not to."

"What reason could they possibly have? She has the body of a two year old. She was born in November of _last year_. SHE'S A BABY!!" I roared.

The two carrying Nessie put her down on the chair I had vacated. As soon as her butt was on the seat she was moving out of it. There was a blur of movement and those two grabbed Nessie again – they had made it halfway across the room in a second. I had never seen Nessie move so fast – fear had given her wings.

They put her on the chair again, each keeping a hand on one shoulder. They were both well over six and a half feet tall and muscled like boxers. Nessie looked hopelessly small and vulnerable between them. She drew her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. She began rocking back and forth, terrified sobs racking her body. To give them their due, the two holding Nessie did look uncomfortable at the situation.

"Nessie?" Billy spoke softly but Nessie still flinched as though he had screamed at her.

"Renesmee." She was scared – her voice was trembling, but there was a note of steel there. She was trying to be tough, bless the kid's tiny heart.

"Excuse me?" Billy seemed slightly confused.

"People who know me, like Grandpa, call me Nessie. People I don't know or like call me Renesmee. You can call me Renesmee."

Billy decided not to get confrontational with a toddler. "Okay, Renesmee. Do you know why you're here?"

"No, I was in the car because Charlie wouldn't leave me at home alone. I was sleeping when those two grabbed me." She nodded her head backwards, indicating Thug One and Thug Two.

Billy looked at the two men. "Paul, Jared that was not the plan. You were told not to hurt her."

"Not unless we had to. Which we did - as soon as we got the door open she started screaming and fighting back." The guy had an angry note in his voice – defensive. Did not like being challenged, possibly beat by a two year old girl.

"I was scared! I had a guy I didn't know either side of me trying to grab me! What would you have done?"

"She broke Jared's fingers," said the aggressive one – Paul.

With apparent discomfort (?) Jared held up his hand. "The fingers are almost healed. I caught a foot to the hand, trying to get her."

"Was it deliberate?" Sam asked. I struggled against him but did nothing but nearly strangle myself.

"I don't think so," said Jared, shaking his head. "Like she said, we surprised her and she acted on instinct. Anyone would have kicked out. She hit the seats more than she hit us."

"Paul?" Quil Aetera looked to the other one for conformation. I silently begged him not to be hot-headed or proud about this. My little girl was at stake – I could not afford this Council to get any more ammunition against us.

"He's right. She certainly wasn't aiming for us – if she was, there would have been more damage. I think she was just trying to get us to let go."

"You were hurting me. I thought if I could get to the front seats I could get out a front door and run for Grandpa."

"You didn't know where he was."

"I can track his scent. I know Grandpa's smell better than anyone else's."

"Do you often track his scent?"

"Don't have to. He's always right next to me."

"Renesmee, have you ever hurt anyone?"

"I don't know anyone. Only Grandpa. I don't go out."

"Why not?"

"Grandpa says it's not safe."

"Because you could hurt someone?"

"Because they could hurt me. Grandpa said people wouldn't understand me, they would fear me because I was different. He said we were safer on our own."

"Did you ever kill anyone?"

Nessie looked down. When she spoke it was too quiet for me to hear.

"What did she say?" Harry looked at the others to see if anyone else had heard.

"I said 'my mama'. My first memory is of me ripping my way out of her belly. My second is of her holding me. My third is of watching her die while Grandpa carried me to my crib." She looked up and fresh tears streaked her face.

The room was silent. No one knew what to say to that. I hung my head in shame – I was so busy that night, wanting to get to Bella before she died, that I never thought Nessie would see Bella's death. I should have covered her eyes, not put her over my shoulder. Anything to spare her those memories.

No one else was speaking so Nessie continued. "I killed my mother. The skin surrounding me couldn't be broken by anything but vampire teeth. My instinct was to bite through it. I didn't want to. I wish I never had to."

"But if you had to, then why do you wish you hadn't had to?"

"Because my mother died! I wanted there to be another way. Now I think that if my father had been here he could have changed her into a vampire like them. She told me that vampire venom can heal anything."

"If she died at your birth, when did she speak to you?" Billy asked.

"When she was pregnant with me. She used to talk to me, tell me all sorts of things."

"And you could hear her, understand?" Harry seemed astounded at the notion.

Nessie pondered the question for a second. "Not at first, but the more I listened the more I understood. I could understand her for a while before my birth. I don't know how long as I had no concept of time at that point. I understood that my movements were hurting her so I tried not to move too much, or too quickly. Just being pregnant was difficult enough for my mother. I craved blood in the womb – my vampiric side was more dominant than my human side – and at first, I absorbed the blood through the placenta without it flowing back into my mother. It was a one way circulation and her body couldn't produce new blood fast enough. It was easier once she began to consume blood as part of her diet."

The elders looked nauseated. "She drank blood? While she was _human_?" in his disgust, Sam's grip on me loosen and I was able to breathe without difficulty again.

"You gave her blood, Charlie?" Quil Aetera thundered.

"It was an accident we found out. I made her a steak for dinner – it hadn't been in the pan five seconds before she was taking it out and eating it. She said the blood smelled good to her – before this she couldn't prick her finger without wanting to throw up. So, I got some blood from the butcher. We decided together to take this step and she responded well. She grew stronger."

"How could you – "

But I cut across Aetera, "my daughter and her unborn child was dying. I did the only thing I could to save them and I would do it again in a heartbeat if I had to. That's what being a parent means. Doing whatever you have to, to make your child happy and healthy. Maybe you three have forgotten that."

Aetera was still spitting tacks over the blood thing. "We will retire to deliberate." Sam stepped away from me completely. The four Elders moved away through a door to a back room. I moved closer to Nessie, appreciating it when Paul and Jared stepped away. Nessie ran into my arms and I scooped her up, holding her close. Sobs racked her body and I rubbed her back, muttering nonsense comforting words. The two boys shifted uncomfortably at the obvious distress of the young child – now I knew who they were and how old there were I couldn't think of them as men, even if they outstripped me by a foot and about 50 pounds of muscle.

The time was interminable. It felt like I walked Nessie around the room for centuries, but the clock said it had only been forty minutes when they walked back into the room. Billy and Harry were both moving slowly – they did not want to be back in this room. Aetera and Uley both looked sad but determined. Things were not looking good for the Swan family. Again. "Charlie, we are sorry, but the Council has made its decision." Aetera was taking the helm once again.

I gripped Nessie tighter – screw the tribal decision, no one was separating me and Nessie. "We have determined that the child is too dangerous to be allowed to survive. If she can kill from birth, she can kill anytime. She shows a startling level of intelligence and emotional maturity but she is still just a child. She must be dealt with while she can."

"You mean before she's big enough to fight off your goons!" Sam growled at my comment, Paul mirroring it behind me. Jared was stood a little behind Paul – honestly, I do not think he wanted to be here anymore than I did. Paul was your typical hothead – rash, but not a killer. I hope.

Nessie understood and she clung tighter to me than she ever had before. I wrapped my arms more securely around her – she was practically obscured from view, cocooned in my embrace. I was backing towards the door. Paul and Jared looked at each other, and then left the Hall. I breathed a little easier – one wolf was easier to evade then three.

"Where did they go?" Harry asked. He, too, sounded relieved the muscle had left.

"I told them to leave once they brought her in. They are to stay so they could give the verdict to the others," Sam replied. "They don't like the situation – none of the pack does. But they will do what is necessary." The last part was directed at me, but he was looking at Nessie. He did not look angry or hateful, just resolved.

He would do what he had to, I would do what I had to and we would see where we were afterwards.

Sam walked towards me, "Charlie, I know this is difficult for you –"

"Really, Sam," sarcasm dripped from my words. "I don't remember you becoming a father. And until you are one, you have no idea how difficult this is."

"Charlie, this doesn't have to be worse than it is. You can give me the – Renesmee and walk away."

Walk away? The kid was dreaming. "And if I refuse?" I asked, shifting Nessie was she was on my hip, away from the teenage Elder.

"If I have to hurt you to get to her, I'm afraid, Charlie, I'll do it. My pack and my tribe come first."

"You would kill an innocent child for your tribe?"

"She's not innocent! No one knows what she's capable of!"

"We don't know what any child is capable of! We just have to teach them right and wrong, and trust them to follow it!"

"She's dangerous!"

"No, she's not!"

"Yes, I am," Nessie push out of my arms and slid to the floor. "If you try to hurt Charlie, I'm deadly, Samuel Uley. You won't hurt Grandpa, I won't let you." I reached down to take her hand and together we backed away towards the door. Sam matched us step for step. He lunged for Nessie, but she leapt into the air, landing on Sam's back. She laced her fingers together and brought her joined fists down as hard as she could on the back of Uley's head. He crumpled to the floor, unconscious. Nessie raced to me, took my hand and together we ran to the door. When I got there I threw open the door but looked back. Aetera looked stunned at the turn of events. I looked between Billy and Harry several times – they looked blank, emotionless. Thirty years of friendship . . . over. Nessie tugged on my hand and dragged me to the car.

She got herself strapped in as I threw the car into gear and tore away. We reached the house in record time. "Get your stuff, kid, we are leaving." Running into the house I sprinted upstairs and grabbed the suitcases of the top of my closet. I threw them on the bed and opened them. Going from room to room I gathered all mine and Nessie's clothes and toiletries. I pulled the box of Bella's things out of the closet that I was keeping for Nessie – the photo album, baby book and journal that Bella had kept for Nessie throughout her pregnancy, as well as Bella's favourite books and music, and the presents I had found under the floorboard. I don't know why I kept them, but I had been running on instincts for so long now I just went with it. I gave the box to Nessie, and watched her flit down the stairs to put the box in the backseat with her before coming back. I had managed to close the lid of the suitcase and lock the clasps in the time it had taken for her to get to the car and back. I gave Nessie the smallest suitcase, ignoring the look she gave me, and took the other two suitcases myself. Hustling her out of the room, I snapped the light off with my elbow. Dropping the suitcases next to my feet for a minute, I took a look around the house that I had bought nearly nineteen years ago; it looked like a whirlwind had blown through. Drawers and cabinets hung open, closet doors were ajar; surfaces were cluttered with rapidly rummaged through belongings.

We were leaving. It suddenly hit me; we were actually leaving the home I had had for nearly two decades.

"Grandpa?" Nessie broke through my reverie of the past to slam me back into the present. We had to get out of here – they were coming after Nessie.

"Let's go, kiddo," I picked up the suitcases and we went downstairs. I looked around this floor of the house, too. There was much I wanted to take, but little we could afford to. Only what you can carry, I kept repeating over and over in my head as my gaze took in ornaments, knick-knacks, the general load of possessions I had come to own in the last twenty years. I went to the kitchen and grab a couple of carrier bags, stuffing them with food and drinks – I wanted to be able to drive a long way before I had to stop. Out of state long.

We got the suitcases into the back of Bella's truck – I forgot to tell Nessie we were leaving the cruiser so I had to get Bella's box out of the car. The car seat got strapped into the passenger seat and the food bags were dumped on the floor.

We drove away, once again ignoring any kind of speed restrictions. My own desire was to get as far away as possible; I did not have a plan for the stuff we left behind or the house. I thought I would never come back; instead Fate would force me to return in seven years.

But I did not know that now, so I just drove. After a while, Nessie fell asleep and the roaring of the truck's engine drowned out the buzzing of my thoughts. My brain switched off and I became numb, my world nothing more than the road in front of me.


	6. Chapter 6

_Because you guys were so quick to review, I'll be quick to update! So, the day after the last chapter, here is chapter six._

_Keep up the reviewing – I've got until chapter 14 written._

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2011

EdwardPOV

I wandered the streets as I had for the past six years. I was used to decades passing like years but since Forks the years had been like decades for me. I had lost my reason for anything. I was a moon with no orbit – my world had gone and I spun through space, ungrounded and uncaring.

I had left my family years ago. I had stayed with them for the first months but it became too difficult. I could read their minds, see the love they had for each other and it burned the hole I had created when I reached inside my chest and ripped out my own shredded heart.

Take the cause out of the man, there is no cause for the man. I had taken myself from Bella and now there was nothing. I felt no joy but neither did I feel relenting, blissful numbness I had prayed for, that I knew should have come after the initial pain had worn out. But no, I was in constant pain, agony tearing through me every moment of every day, unyielding in its malice. I looked down at my skin, expecting, hoping, _wanting _to see some kind of physical manifestation of my pain but there was nothing. No burns, no gashes, no blood. The skin was a flawless as ever and I wanted to scream.

But then, after so long of unendurable, gut-wrenching _pain_ I heard something that changed everything. Bella's lullaby, floating towards me, drifting on the cold Minnesota wind. I closed my eyes for a second, finding the origin of this miracle. And then I ran. Ran faster than I ever had, towards the impossible. I do not know what I thought I would find but it had to be better than the nothing I was leaving.

What I found was a bar. A piano bar to be exact. There was a dark haired man behind the bar facing away from me, cleaning up. I barely noticed him. And there, sat at a grand piano, was a girl. A woman, I supposed, I could not tell as she, too, was turned away from me. She sat at the piano, playing softly the piece I had written so long ago – from a lifetime when anything, even happiness, was possible. She was wearing a backless, black dress, not exactly daring, but revealing enough to make the back worth looking at, I supposed – I did not really know, I never saw women anymore. What was the point of looking; I knew none of them would ever be _her_ so they might as well not exist. Most of this woman's bare back was covered by her hair, however. Long, curling tresses of silky hair, a similar colour to mine. The same colour as mine I saw – the exact same shade of bronze.

Something was different about the lullaby. It took me a second to realise what it was – I was not used to focusing any more, I had made a study of letting everything wash over me. The lullaby did not end when it should have; when I thought of it, it ended on a sad note, literally. With this version, the sad note was the opening of a new passage. It was sadder, more sombre and without the light Bella had inspired.

The lullaby came to an end, the final poignant note hanging in the air.

"Beautiful, kid. She would have loved it." The barman had finished cleaning the glasses and strode over. The pianist sat there, still as ever, as he laid a hand on her shoulder. She nodded, but did not speak. The man sighed and pulled her off the piano stool into an embrace. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders and she curved hers upwards to rest on his back. He rested his cheek on the top of her head and rubbed her back.

Not your typical pianist/bartender relationship. I was not good with pretending to be human any more - I had been a wraith for six years and was so out of touch with people I actively repelled them as opposed to creating the uncomfortable atmosphere that my kind usually did – but I was almost certain this meant they had a close emotional connection.

"Grandpa?" They broke apart and walked towards the bar, his arm around her shoulder still, hers around his waist.

That explained it then.

"Yeah, kid."

"How long are we staying here for?"

"Don't you like Minnesota in winter?"

"Well, the breeze is lovely," she said, slightly droll. The bartender laughed and squeezed her shoulders.

"We can stay for ... longer than we have for a while."

"Yeah, sorry about that." The girl looked down at the floor. By this time they had reached the bar. The man walked round to the other side of the bar to pour them both a drink.

"It's not your fault, kiddo. We can't change who we are." I wondered to myself what she had done. I felt rude listening any longer since they did not know I was here, so I knock on the door I had just walked through. Without looking up the barman said, "We're closed."

"Can I just –"

"No, because we're closed," finally looking up, the bartender took a good look at me. A look of such anger, such hate that I had never seen before crossed his face. In that moment, it was almost seven years ago and I had just told him his daughter was in hospital after falling down two flights of stairs and through a window. Charlie Swan had really loved his daughter.

"Hello, Chief Swan. I . . . I never thought I would see you again."

"Yeah, and I hoped it." I had to admit, it hurt coming from the man I had once thought could potentially be my father-in-law. "Get out. Now."

"I just wanted to talk to -" my hand came up to motion towards the girl.

"No!" Charlie was overreacting. "Get the FUCK OUT NOW!"

"Charlie let's talk about this."

"I don't want to talk about this, I want to kill you, but since I can't do that I will settle with you getting the hell away from us." The girl was looking between the two of us, confusion written all over her face.

"Charlie, please, I did love –"

"Don't!" Charlie squeezed his eyes shut in pain. His voice had lost its anger, it power when he spoke again. "Just don't. Please, Edward, just go. It's for the best." Charlie's eyes opened and he looked at me, imploring me to listen.

"Edward? Edward Cullen?" The girl's gaze locked on Charlie, then snapped over to focus on me. There was no confusion in her gaze now, just hurt-laced fury. Her thoughts – a swirling mass of longing, hate and the bizarre need to know me – stabbed at me from across the room.

"Yes? Do I know you?" I focused on her. I knew I did not. At least, I thought I did not, but then people did grow up, unlike me.

"No," the emotional pain leaked into her voice, making it shake. "You don't know me at all." The words were right, but the emphasis was not what I would expect. What did they know that I did not? I watched as the girl twisted off the barstool and swept out of the room. Even as emotionally unstable as she was now, she was astonishingly graceful. Almost as graceful as a vampire. But she was not one – I could hear her heartbeat, a lot faster than most humans, but strong. Definitely not a vampire.

Charlie's thoughts, as always, were fuzzy. Not impossible to read like _hers_ but not as clear as every other being I had come across. I compared his thoughts to art; if everyone's else were Renaissance – perfectly clear in what they depicted, then Charlie's were Cubist – I knew what they were but they took longer to see.

He was angry at me; that I could have realised without my extra abilities. But there was sadness there too. He was thinking about Bella, but trying not to. No, that was wrong. He was thinking of Bella, but trying to _focus _on her, not let his thoughts wander towards . . .

This was infuriating! I had not been so in the dark about a person's thoughts since Bella. But, then, Bella was so expressive that I did not need it all the time. Not when she was attempting to lie anyway.

"How have you been?" I thought I should start off on a polite foot. Charlie's incredulous expression suggested I was not going about it the right way.

"You really want to know, or are you just trying to get round to Bella?" Charlie was straight forward as ever. I frowned as I tried to catch his train of thought. "What's wrong, Edward? Can't read my mind?"

I started at the comment – Charlie knew my power?

"Yeah, I know. Bella told me."

What else did she tell him?

"She told me everything, Edward. And at this point, I'm betting that I know more than you do about your kind."

I was _not _betting that he knew more than I did, but I was beginning to wonder if I was not the only mind reader in the room.

"No, Edward, I can't read minds." This, I found ironic.

"You seem to be doing a pretty good job."

"You're not as transparent as Bella gave you credit for. You just need to be read more carefully. Fortunately, I was a cop once upon a time. Unlike Bells, I was trained to observe. Bella was in love – she couldn't see past the face to the expression behind it. No offence, it's a very nice face."

"Thanks." Bella loved me – my mangled heart throbbed impossibly in my chest. It had been a long time since anyone had said it out loud – my family knew not to. "Can we talk about her yet?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"To answer that I would have to talk about her."

"You are sharp." Most people fell for that one. "How is Bella? I went to Forks, a few months after I left I came back but you were gone. I thought you may have taken her on vacation or something so I left. It was probably better that way, not seeing her." Or I never would have had the strength to leave her again.

"You didn't see anyone, talk to them?"

"No, I wasn't Forks' Mr Popular; a lot of people really liked Bella. The guys from high school probably would have formed a lynch mob."

"So . . . you don't . . . you don't know?" Charlie looked uncomfortable. He was thinking he wished he did not have to do this.

"Don't know what?" Fear wrenched at my gut, twisting my insides.

"Edward," wow, Charlie really wanted to be able to hate me, but at the moment he . . . pitied me? "I don't know how to tell you this but -" He did not have to; his thoughts suddenly became brutally clear.

"Bella's . . . she's . . . she can't be! That's why I left, so she wouldn't be wouldn't be hurt! I live in constant agony so she would be safe! She could live and grow old and – and -" I could not finish. This was not possible. I ceased to function. I had never thought about the same thing all at once before, I had always been able to think of multiple things but now all I could think of was Bella.

I had been a pain-stricken zombie for six years _for nothing?!_ I had held on so that one day, perhaps, if I could, I would see her again. It would feel like someone was ripping my soul out of my chest all over again, but if I could see her happy, with the full life I had always wished I could give her, then I would know I had made the right decision. Her happiness would make my pain bearable. I hoped. Either that or I would wish to rip apart the man that made her happy and any other man that looked at her.

Unable to process the thought, I shut down.


	7. Chapter 7

_So, now we start getting more than one person's POV per chapter – I was writing it and I wanted the different angles so you're just going to have to keep up. Don't worry – I have labelled them all. _

_Enjoy and Review!_

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CharliePOV

The kid had not moved in about a minute. He had gone completely still, like a statue. I wondered if I should do something.

"Grandpa?" Nessie seems to have finished her walk and had come back. As if the situation was not difficult enough, now I had to explain why her father was impersonating an ice sculpture.

"You okay Nessie?" First things first – deal with the person who was actually capable of responding.

"Not really. I never thought he would just turn up, you know? I thought that, if somehow he did, he would know me, too. Like something inside him would realise. I thought he might even be happy about it."

"Sorry kid, but teenage boys rarely realise things without a lot of help. And signposts." My feeble attempt at humour worked. I think. She gave a small laugh and the creases on her forehead became less pronounced.

"Sooo, what the hell is he doing?" she crossed her arms and looked at Edward.

"Having an emotional breakdown, I think." Nessie, being sweet but impatient, walked up to Edward.

"Hey, Cullen!" she waved her hand in front of his face. "Yoo hoo, anyone home?" she whistled at him, but there was still no response. She threw her hands up and gave an exasperated sigh. Turning on her heel, she stalked back to where I stood behind the bar. "Did you tell him?"

"No, I didn't get round to it."

"So, why is he like this?"

"He read my mind and found out about your mom. Then he froze and here he stands."

She looked at him thoughtfully. "I guess he really loved her, huh?"

"Looks like it. He said he left to protect her, to give her the chance at a full life."

"Coz that worked out really well. If he had stayed he might have been able to save her. Ain't life ironic?" she said, bitterly. "Are you going to tell him? About me I mean."

"Do you want me to?"

She shrugged delicately, "I don't know. Half of me wants him to know just to torture him some more – I can't deny that I blame him and hate him, at least a bit. I am what I am because of him. What happened, happened because of him."

"And the other half?"

"The half of me wants to tell him because he deserves to know, because I want him to know. I want him to know _me_."

"Sounds like the whole of you wants to tell him the truth."

"I do, but I'm scared. What if he finds out but he doesn't want to know? He left before, he can do it again."

"Different situation, kid."

"Not if he thinks he's doing the right thing again." She had me there.

"I have to be going." Edward was with us again. I wonder how much of the last few minutes he heard. From the expression on his face, I would say . . . none. The frozen expression had been replaced by a distracted one. He was moving more quickly than he would if he was with it enough to pretend to be human, and he was restless. I felt sorry for the kid; he had unwittingly created his own worst nightmare.

"Okay, Edward. I'll see you around, maybe."

"Yeah. Yeah, sure."

"I'm sorry you had to find out about Bella this way. If I had been able to contact you, I would have." Eventually. He nodded his thanks, a sad smile acknowledging what I had not said out loud.

EPOV

"Goodbye, Charlie." I walked forward to shake his hand. He could not hide his shudder as he touched my icy skin, but he gripped my hand firmly all the same, which I appreciated. "And you . . ." I turned to the girl, my hand outstretched in hope.

"Renesmee. Renesmee Swan." She had a pleasing voice – gently spoken, but clear.

"Goodbye, Renesmee."

"I hope we see you again, Edward." We had a lot to talk about.

"Forgive me, but I don't think I can talk about anything. Bella's gone now. I don't think I can help."

Edward, she thought.

I ran, ran away from their thoughts as fast as I could. Whatever they wanted to talk to me about, I just did not want to know. I still had their thoughts of Bella running through my brain. Renesmee's thoughts of Bella were oddly static; they were memories of photographs, not events like most people's memories. I wish I had stayed to find out what her relationship to Bella was – she looked to be about twenty, which, according to Charlie's memories, would have made her about fourteen when Bella...

She had called Charlie 'grandpa' but I supposed that could be some nickname she called him when he was being affectionate, or caring – when he was acting like a grandfather. The concern they had for each other, the love, was extraordinary. They were all each other had. Part of me wanted to go back, just so I could find out all I was missing before I did the inevitable, but the larger part of me just wanted to stop the pain so I ran to the nearest airport and booked a flight to Italy. Alice and Jasper turned up ten minutes before boarding.

Hello, Edward. Alice thought.

"You're getting faster."

You've been directionless for years, you didn't just . . . exist. This one came out of now where – for the first time in six years you made a decision.

Why now, Edward? Jasper's thoughts joined in my head. What changed?

"Bella's dead." Neither of them was surprised. They knew; I plucked it right out of their heads. Alice had got the vision years ago – Bella had been invisible to her for two months, something was blocking her visions. Then suddenly, Alice saw Bella die, and Charlie's future disappeared. Whatever blocked Bella from Alice had switched to Charlie. "You didn't think that you should have told me? That you should have gone to Bella, find out what happened."

"We did, Edward." Alice and Jasper had reached me and sat either side of me in the airport lounge. "We went to the house that same day – a few weeks before you went back. We followed Charlie's scent to the cemetery and watched the funeral. It was difficult, Edward, for the people that knew her, but they were all there for her. For Charlie."

I was suddenly furious. "You went to Bella's funeral? I wasn't even told the woman I love _died_ but you! You got to go to the damn funeral. You got to say _goodbye_!"

"Edward, I'm sorry. We thought – we knew you would do something like this if you found out. Your love for Bella, your pain over what you did, was still so fresh, so new that we thought it best you didn't know so you didn't do anything rash." She laid her hand on my arm but I tore away, pulling away from her comfort. I could hear how my rejection had hurt her and I was glad – it was about time someone else was in pain for a change. "We were going to tell you later. We thought you would begin to get over it after a few years. But then you didn't. You were a ghost, Edward, existing only for the possibility of seeing her again. We couldn't take the only thing you were living for away from you."

"So you just lied to me." I rounded on them both. "You just made the decision not to tell me the most important thing in my existence had happened. You left me _in agony _for _years_ because _you _couldn't bear it! I'm sorry this has all been so hard _for you_!"

"Edward, our pain can never match yours, of course." Jasper joined the fray, his power bringing me back from the point of insanity, calming me down until I could focus on something other than the pain and my plan to end it. "But Bella meant something to us, too. We're not asking you to forget your pain, just acknowledge _ours_."

"Come back home, Edward."

"I can't. Home died six years ago." I wish I could cry. I wish I could lie down on this floor and sob and scream until this pain, this physical _thing _inside me was gone. But I could not; my body was frozen, I could not cry. I could not do anything. My existence was pointless.

"Come back to Denali. No one had seen you for years, Edward. You've been wandering for too long and it's time for you to remember your family."

"Come on, Edward. Don't do this to Esme and Carlisle; they would be crushed if anything happened to you."

I had been living with the pain for so long now; a few months would not make such a difference. I would go home, say goodbye properly instead of just vanishing.

Then I would go to Volterra. I would push the Volturi into punishing me. I would die and oblivion would welcome me. No pain, no longing, no impossible love. Just nothingness, numbness. The empty black I had been begging for since the day I lied and told her I did not want her.

"Let's go home." Alice was thrilled – she was so happy about my decision to go home that she would not check my future for a while and by that time I would make sure I was gone. Jasper was fooled – I was suddenly calm, collected. I could deal with the pain because I had the end in sight. I knew I had made the right decision. Alice linked her arm through mine and took Jasper's hand. Together we walked out of the airport to the Aston Martin Vanquish outside.

"Want to drive?" It had been so long since I had driven anywhere – I preferred the illusion of coping that walking gave me. Keep walking, keep moving, keep dealing.

"You know what? I really do." I took the keys and we got in the car. I put my foot on the accelerator and did not let up until we were home.

I stayed longer than I should have, but I found that I wanted to stay, wanted to hear about everything I had missed in the last few years. There was a bittersweet quality to that final year with my family – I knew that this was ending, but they did not. They treated it like a new beginning; once again the prodigal son had returned and we were a family again.

But then, the year I gave myself was up and it was time to die. I had just one place I wanted to go before I went to Italy. I had to see the place of Bella's birth, and death. The place where we had had those few perfect months, the only time I could say I was truly alive.

So, seven years after I had left, I returned to Forks for the third and final time, to see Bella's final resting place.

I wanted peace. What I found was a war.

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_Sorry about the delay – I started university a couple of days ago and had to get everything ready for it._

_Hope you like and sorry if the multiple pov's got confusing but it should be clear whose pov it is._


	8. Chapter 8

_Okay, just to warn you, these next few chapters are a little more light-hearted, little less doom and gloom than the previous seven. Although I have been declared an Angst-Queen (thanks Hannah) I have decided to give you guys a break. _

_Don't worry – the angst returns in force._

_Sorry about the long wait – Univeristy stuff. Oi, that was a bad time. Anyway, I apologise for _disappointing _people (I think that was the phrase used), rest assured, the story will be picking up again. Just don't expect one a week – I haven't got the memory for that!_

_Read and review!_

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2012

NPOV

We're off to see the wizard, the magical wizard of OR. But, right now we were stuck in a damn traffic jam in Seattle. Just perfect. Charlie was snoring in the passenger, which left me to sing along to Aerosmith in the middle of a standstill. After it became clear we were not going anywhere, I turned the engine off and leant through the rear window to get my guitar from the truck bed. I sat there "strummin' and hummin'," as Grandpa called it, barely paying attention. Finally, we got the news on the radio: there had been a huge accident; overturned gigantic truck, one of those eighteen footers or wheelers or whatever, covering both sides of the motorway. There had been a pile up, followed by bumper to bumper traffic for fifteen miles in each direction. Everyone was told to stay away because we were not going anywhere for the next few hours. Us lucky ones who were already stuck were basically told to get comfortable because we were done for the day. Charlie and I were in no rush, so I grabbed a pen and paper and began to write. Charlie listened to the Mariners game on the radio.

Three hours later and here we still were. Charlie was still asleep, like my ass, and the new song was complete. A few hours later, as the sun went down, the traffic moved enough for me to bother turning on the engine. We were planning on blasting straight through but . . . Fate hates us. We were going to Port Angeles for a movie but we broke down just outside of La Push. Knowing I was the faster of the two, Charlie let me run the ten miles to town to see if I could organise a tow. I ducked into a local store to grab some food and water and to ask the guy behind the counter about a tow.

"You're in luck, the mechanic just walked in," the guy behind the counter was nearly seven feet tall and looked like he should be playing for the NFL. He nodded at the door to the man who had just walked in. What the hell was up with these people? Or were all the guys around here built like tanks – they reminded me of the two men that had grabbed me from the car that night when I was hauled in front of the Council (just one of the many reasons why we had wanted to avoid La Push) and the other uber-dude that was one of the Elders. "Hey, Seth! Got a customer for you, dude."

Seth smiled and walked over, giving me the customary once-over. From the way the smile widened into a grin, I guessed he liked what he saw. He held out his hand, which I shook, "Seth Clearwater."

"Er, Carlie, Carlie . . . Bird." Carlie Bird? If anyone else had come up with that name I would have snorted in derision. Ah, well, surprise and improvisation, blah blah blah.

"Well, Carlie, Carlie Bird, what's the problem?"

"Cracked radiator ten miles out of town. Happened right after we got out of that mammoth jam from Seattle, too."

The guys winced sympathetically. "Oooh, you got stuck in that, huh? You've had a great day." The guy behind the counter shook his head as he spoke as he bagged my stuff.

"Tell me about it. We only wanted to hit a movie in Port Angeles."

"Well, your day just got better. Seth's got a tow truck; you guys should be fixed in a couple of days, right Seth?"

Seth nodded, "yeah. I got a few radiators stocked. Provided they fit, we should have you on the road this time tomorrow."

"Really, that's great. We didn't want to hang around." The two of them grinned and I realised how what I said might be taken. "I didn't mean we didn't like the place . . . I just meant, you know, we need to get going and –"

Counter guy held up his hand. "Don't worry, we understand. Small town, not really much to see but the beach."

"I'll be sure to take a look. How much do I owe you?" I reached for my purse but he was already shaking his head.

"This is on the house – to prove the day wasn't a total blow out from start to finish." He pushed the bag towards me.

""Really? 'Cause I can pay – "

"What are you doing? Take the bag and run," Seth said. "Quil never gives it away, look." He reached for a small pack of Gummy bears by the cash register but before he even got close, Quil smacked his hand away.

"Not you, you've had a good day."

"Yeah, but Gummy bears would make it a _great _day." Seth's grin was infectious and Quil could not help but give a small laugh before chucking his friend the gummy goodness. "Wow, you're like a little good luck charm," he said, turning to me. "Maybe I shouldn't fix your car too quick – wouldn't want to lose out on gummies."

"Seth, you know Jake likes a quick turnaround in the garage."

"This time," Seth said, looking me up and down more obviously for Quil's benefit, "I'm guessing Jake wouldn't mind if we took awhile."

Quil shook his head at Seth's obviousness, but I just laughed. Seth was so cheerful and smily that he was just flirtatious fun, not the lecherous creep I seem to normally attract.

Eventually, we left the shop and got the tow back to Charlie, who was starving at this point. I could tell he was waiting for Seth to recognise him, but he did not. Charlie had changed in the last few years – working out with me had lost him his Buda belly and got him in the best shape he had ever been in. His hair was shorter as well, cut like a Marine. I wondered if our luck would hold out and we could stay invisible until we could get the car tomorrow and go.

"This is my dad, Charlie Bird." Charlie raised his eyebrows but played along – was not the first time one of us had had to make up an insane story or new name to avoid suspicion. We had to pretend to be father and daughter these days – Charlie was only forty-three and, now fully matured, I resembled a twenty-three year old. It felt wrong, leaving my mom out, when she would always be the biological link between the two of us, but there was no other way. We had pretended that Bella was Charlie' daughter and my sister once but it led to way too many questions so we pretended it was just the two of us.

A little while later, when it was completely dark out, the truck was parked in the garage, awaiting inspection. Seth lifted the hood and peered inside. "You were right, definitely the radiator. Truck's pretty old though – I don't know if we have a radiator that's a good fit."

"That so? Or are you just keeping me around for the elusive Jacob?" I smiled at Seth playfully.

He grinned back, "I was hoping to get you to stick around for me." I laughed and Charlie rolled his eyes at our flirting and walked around to check out the other cars in the place. We both followed him with our gaze and when we looked back, realising we had been doing the same thing, we laughed again. It felt nice to be around Seth – I had never met anyone so happy just to be here. Most people I had come across had an attitude, or a chip on their shoulder, or an angle they were playing. Not Seth – he was totally pure.

"You got some nice cars in here," I said, gesturing at the beautiful cars that were lined up for some TLC.

"Yeah, Jake's got a weakness for the classics and since we're cheaper than Dowling's, people with older cars that need a bit more attention come to us." Seth ran his hand appreciatively over the hood of a 1970 Plymouth Barracuda that sat next to our '54 Chevy truck.

"I don't think Jake's the only one," I teased.

"What can I say? They were beautiful back then, different. Now, all the cars look the same; they've lost their edge, their character, they –" he broke of when he saw the size of my smile. "I'm being a complete car geek, aren't I? My sister always says I talk too much and that's why I don't have a girlfriend."

"No, no, I love it. I feel the same way. I guess its way I love the truck; it belonged to my mom and her dad bought it for her off a friend of his. I love the permanence; nothing can break this truck. Me and Charlie move around a lot, new place every few months or less. This truck is the only consistent thing I've ever had. Cars now are built as a temporary thing, or part of a series; they're not loved and taken care of like they used to be. I think it's sad."

Seth grinned.

"Okay, so now I'm the car geek. Feel free to laugh at me for being so soppy when it comes to cars."

"No, it's just that . . . you sound just like Jake. He always talks about cars like they're people with feelings too. He talks _to _the cars, too." Seth shook his head in disbelief.

"And why not?" I put my hands on my hips in mock outrage. "A little encouragement and tenderness goes a long way." I spoiled my frown by smiling; I could not help it, Seth just made me want to smile all the time. Charlie, evidently tired of our banter, walked over and started to talk to Seth about payment and pick up, the oh so subtle stop-talking-to-my-kid-so-we-can-leave ploy.

When Seth found we did not have a place to stay – having planned to drive straight through La Push - he gave us directions to a motel on the outskirts of town. It was either that or the Lanes' bed and breakfast near the beach; Seth started a little when Charlie and I practically sounded our denial at that one – Seth had never seen me as a baby and he had never really known Charlie but Jared Lane, who owned the place with his wife Kim, had been one of the guys from the Council that night. It was best to stay away from those we knew were definite wolves and who might remember us.

The next day, Charlie laid low in the motel, watching a game on the crappy TV. I headed over to the garage, planning on taking the short walk to the beach to lose myself amongst the local populace – one great thing about the Olympic Peninsula was that it was the wettest place in the continental US, which meant lots of layers and hoods, so I could easily cover my face and no one would look at me like I was about to hit a bank. Someone was evidently working a car but they were in the pit that cars are parked over when the problem is far back in the middle of the car. Could it possibly be the mystical Jacob, who I had yet to meet?

I was about to duck down and introduce myself so I could inquire about my truck, when Seth ducked out of the office at the back and waved me in. On entering, I was amazed the garage could function at all. Piles and piles of paper were everywhere, on ever available surface, including on top of the filing cabinet which, from the pages sticking out where they had been trapped, held lads mags, as opposed to anything useful in running a business.

Seth saw me look around with a wide-eyed expression. "I know, completely mess, huh?"

I took hold of one of the pages sticking out and pulled. Letting the magazine dangle from my fingers I turned to look at Seth with raised eyebrows. He had the good grace to blush. "May I suggest using the filing cabinets to file, say, receipts, bills? Instead of using it as a hiding place for your naked women when your mom pays a visit."

Seth's blush deepened and I heard a husky laugh coming from under the car. I did not think a human could hear me from that far, but hey, I already knew I was not the only mythical creature in this quiet seaside town.

He snatched the magazine, shoving it in a drawer which he slammed shut. "So, your truck," he rummaged around, picking up and putting down pieces of paper until he found the one he needed. "Here's the estimate."

I took a look at the numbers and nodded. "All looks reasonable." I handed the piece of paper to him. His hand brushed mine as he took it back and we both smiled – this was not going anywhere and we both knew, but what the hell – flirting was not a proposal.

Being a vampire hybrid I was fully mature after seven years – 23 years in seven. Believe me, not easy. So I was still getting used to being able to flirt without my Grandpa threatening to arrest the guy for statutory rape. He was still trying to do that since I was technically only seven years old, but he knew he would not succeed once the real arresting office got a glance at my C cups. Unfortunately, when it came to raising girls, men forgot logic in favour of stubbornly enforcing their child's innocence. Not that it worked, but we let them pretend it did.

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_Apologies for the bitchy tone of the above AN – I was a little put out the choice of words of a review and decided to take it badly. _


	9. Chapter 9

JPOV

I was working under a car the first time she walked into my life. Didn't even see the feet of my imprint (would that have worked? Imprinting on her ankles?). I just heard the footsteps and dismissed them; Seth was not under a car so he could deal with customers.

Oil coated my hands, and my chest where I had wiped them. I wore jeans under the overalls, but no shirt, not even a wife beater. Mechanics is physical work, not helped by a body temp of 108.9 degrees and since it was only me and Seth it did not really matter. Probably best Seth was up there – it seems to be intimidating to talk to a guy who's closer to seven foot anyway. Probably would not be any easier if said guy was half naked and covered in oil. Got a few dates that way, though.

I heard the conversation easily – another satisfied customer. Since I had opened the garage five years ago, I had had a sizable clientele – people who were tired of being ripped off by Dowling or having to try to make the drive to Seattle. Things had gotten easier after hiring Seth three years ago the day he graduated high school. He had been working every Saturday since I opened the place. Hiring Seth had made sense - he was a great mechanic, hard worker and the kid was easy to be around. Moving away to college had been out for the both of us because of pack duties – not that either of us wanted to go, or had the grades to after the vamp activity meant skipping school a lot. I made him a partner after he had been working here a year. Changed the name and everything from Black Motors to BC Motors. It was gonna be Black-Clearwater Motors, but BC is easier to say and those signs? Yeah, they charge by the _letter_ for those things! Who has five bucks a letter when they are trying to start a business without extorting people?

The girl – I assumed it was a female, either that or Seth was gay and the man he was flirting with had just been kicked in the nuts. Since that seemed highly improbable – I had been sharing minds with Seth for the past seven years; kid definitely was not gay, for the goofy, 'cute' (not my word) one of the group, Seth got his fair share of tail. Aforementioned goof-ball slid under the car into the pit next to me after fading footsteps heralded the unknown female's departure. "What to do you think?"

"Don't know," I said, without stopping work on the car. "Didn't see her."

"Well, how did she sound to you?"

I gave Seth a look, "how did she _sound_? Well, she hasn't got a cold, if that's what you're asking."

"You know it's not."

"Got a sense of humour – some women who have given you hell over the mags, gone on about degrading women, they're not real, you should be ashamed of yourself, yada yada."

"Yeah, I thought that. She just laughed it off. Got a great smile."

"Gonna ask her out?"

"Dunno." Full sentences were not our strong point – we tended to say enough to get the point across, but that is it. "She's cool, not gonna be in town long – said she'd be gone as soon as the truck was fixed."

"So, what's the problem? She sounds alright, and doesn't expect anything if she told you she heading straight out."

"Yeah, maybe. Maybe you should ask her out."

"Why?"

"Dunno. Just got a feeling."

This did make me stop work, and Seth got another look. "What?" Only Seth could be six and half feet tall and get away with the innocent look.

"'Just got a feeling'?"

"Well, yeah. Besides, she might be more into you than me. And you'd have more success – you don't have a crazy sister and a mother who _really _wants you married screening every girl you meet."

"Sue still going on about the imprinting thing?"

Seth finally grabbed a wrench and started helping me out. I think he did it more for something to concentrate on so he did not have to make eye contact than a real desire to work. "Yeah, seriously, it's crazy. It's not like Dad imprinted on _her._ It's just that with Sam and Paul and Jared, and now Brady, too? She's not buying the whole 'rare occurrence' thing anymore. I told her it's a five four split to us with you, me, Collin, Embry and Leah not having imprinted. But she says Leah might not count – being the first female to change, we have no idea what to expect."

"How's Leah doing anyway?"

"Yeah, she's good." Leah got tired of the wolf thing pretty quickly. She helped us out with the red-haired vampire who was giving us all the trouble a few years back, but we got to talking – me and Leah get on surprisingly well – and she was tired of being angry. She finished high school, did some mediation/yoga thing to deal with her anger and decided she liked it so much she became an instructor. She moved to Seattle after her graduation but she still comes to visit all the time. "Hasn't changed in a couple of years so she's aging naturally again."

"That's great." Of all of us, Leah hated being a shifter the most, probably because she had the most ripped away from her – her first love, her father, her chance for a family. Or so she thought. "So, everything . . . picked up again?" Even with two sisters of my own talking about their . . . cycles was still gross. As men, we tread carefully around this area – you never know what you can say and what will get the nearest heavy object thrown at you.

Seth shifted uncomfortably. "Er, yeah, everything's cool again, you know once she started aging everything was . . . fine." We suddenly decided we needed a beer break. We crawled out of the car and headed for Quil's shop.

"You can't come in here naked, Jake."

"Half naked – I'm wearing jeans." I'd pulled off the overalls and cleaned myself up before locking up, but since I'd had to run a patrol this morning I had headed straight to the garage where I always kept a spare pair of pants. But just the pants. Quil chucked me a T-shirt from behind the counter.

"You'd best put at least this on. It's not warm out." I sighed, made a comment about Quil and mother hens that he chose to ignore, and pulled the shirt on. It felt stupid putting it on to keep warm when my body alone would melt snow, but hey, keep the tourists from noticing anything too out of the ordinary and the rest of us breathe easier.

Behind me, the bell above the door jingled as someone came in. It was the girl from the garage again – I recognised the smell. It was the sweetest smell I had ever come across. Apart from vamp stink, but that's sickly sweet. She had a pleasant sweet scent, sweeter than any human, but more human than any vampire. In front of me Seth waved, and I heard the woman say, "oh, hey Seth. I was just grabbing some lunch." I turned around and realised I was wrong – this woman was not human.

She was a goddess. I stared into deep brown eyes and the world tilted on it axis. Suddenly, nothing else mattered – not my dad, or the pack, my garage or the flat. They were just things that had kept me occupied until _she _came along. I'd thought the business was something I had done for me, something I could be proud of. It wasn't – it was for her, so I could provide for her, and our children.

Sweet Jesus, I'd seen her for five seconds and I was thinking about impregnating her. Not that anyone would blame me – how could they? She was the single most perfect thing in the world.

"Jacob? You okay, dude?" Seth waved his hand in front of my face. I pushed him out of the way – it blurred my view of her for microseconds at a time – being a little too forceful and sending him flying into the shelves. I walked slowly forward, trying to get a feel for this new she-is-gravity-she-is-keeping-you-here-not-the-world feeling. I seemed to be doing better than she was – she took a step towards me and stumbled, her eyes fixed on my face. Instinctively, I pulled her in close, wanting to protect her, to not let her fall. She ended up hard against and she fit perfectly. She _felt _perfect. Her hands grabbed my arms and her fingers dug into my biceps, trying to hold on. Like I'd let her go; I'd been waiting my _whole life _for her – I just had not known it until I saw her.

Without speaking, I bent my head to kiss her. She stretched upwards and I could feel the whipcord muscle of her back move under my hands. The world was shut out; nothing existed beyond her lips; that point of contact that connected us. Her hands slid upwards to lock around my neck; mine slipped lower so I could press her more firmly into me. She made some kind of sound in the back of her throat when I did that that made my knees weak.

When my head was spinning and I could not go without oxygen anymore – stupid need to breathe to live taking her lips from mine – we separated. We both leant back slightly so we could look each other in the eye – her eyes were dark, her pupils were so dilated that they were ringed with the barest amount of iris.

"Aw, crap!" Seth's voice broke through the haze surrounding us as he spoke to Quil. "Jake just imprinted! Please, don't tell my mom!" Quil laughed but the sound seemed so far away I could barely hear it.

"I'm Jake." It seemed like a good time to introduce myself, now that she had become the centre of my universe and I had stuck my tongue down her throat in front of two of my friends.

"Nessie. My name, that is." She looked adorably confused – was she having as much trouble concentrating as I was?

"Nessie? You said your name was Carlie." Seth's voice interrupted us again – part of me wanted to kick him to shut him up, but that would involve moving away from Nessie.

"I, er, what?" A small frown appeared and she shook her head apparently trying to clear it. "Name, yes. Carlie is my middle name." She was speaking absently, still not breaking her gaze from mine.

"Okay, sooo?" Really, really wanted to kick Seth now – Nessie did not look happy. She started to pull away, her hands sliding from my neck down my arms to my hands – creating a serious amount of goose bumps – which she then tried to pull apart. I was not going to let her, but she was _strong,_ seriously strong. I was trying my hardest not to release her, but she was actually managing to break my grip slightly. A human would not have been able to. The mystery of Nessie became more . . . mysterious. What was she?

Leaving. That's what she was. "I have to go. Charlie will be wondering where I am. I don't want to worry him." She looked upset at the idea so I immediately freed her – I did not want to distress her. I wanted to rip this Charlie guy apart though – who was he? Brother? Boyfriend? _Husband?!!_

"Tell him the truck will be ready Wednesday then he can pick it up." Great, Seth – tell her she can leave in two days!

"Yeah, I'll tell him. See you later." She stumbled out of the store and walked over to a small Harley. She got on it and rode off. Would she be okay? She wasn't wearing any leathers; she did not have a helmet, what if she got into an accident?! I started after her but Quil grabbed my shoulder.

"She'll be fine." He seemed to be reading my mind – but then he had imprinted, too. He spent most of his time these days wondering how much trouble a nine year old could get into.

"But . . ." I wanted to go after her.

"I know it's tough to let her go after you've just imprinted but you got to. She has no idea what just happened – for all she knows, she just got assaulted."

I paled at the suggestion. "You don't think she thinks that, do you? Oh no! I should have asked her – what was I thinking to –"

"Whoa, Jake, man, calm down. From where we were standing she wasn't complaining. About to jump you, maybe, but definitely not complaining." Seth was now sat on the counter. I remembered, suddenly and with ucontrollable jealousy, that Seth had been flirting with her – had even planned on maybe asking her out. And I had told him to go for it! Godammit! I walked towards him. He must have got the idea of what was going through my head because he tried to slide off the counter towards the door. I could him by the throat and pinned him.

"You won't ask her out, will you?" Despite the threatening nature of my actions, my voice was pathetically feeble. The thought of her accepting his invitation had me begging.

"Are you kidding me? Jacob, she's _your imprint!"_ He sounded so sincere, and surprised, that I believed him. I let him go and Seth moved away, making room for me on the counter between him and where Quil had just taken a perch. I took the improvised seat gratefully; the jealousy had leaked away as quickly as it had come and now my legs shook. The emotions that had flitted through me in the last five minutes took their toll and I slumped where I sat, the unbelievably high of imprinting, and the terrifying low of bizarre jealousy leaving me drained.

"You okay?" Quil asked, passing me a soda.

I shrugged and popped open the can. "Dunno, it's kind of – I mean, I knew it was a big thing, I've seen in your heads when you think about it. But being shown it and experiencing it firsthand is poles apart. It sounds stupid, but I never thought it would be so _much_. I had seen her for twenty seconds and I was already thinking about how I was going to tell her so she wouldn't freak out. Then I kissed her and I couldn't think at all. Is that normal?" I directed the question at Quil.

He shrugged, "no idea. I've never kissed Claire. Not like that. And it's been so long since I was with anyone like that that I can't remember. I can't even imagine it – Claire's too young and I don't see women anymore." I turned to get Seth's opinion.

"The whole not being able to think while being kissed usually comes in one of two scenarios, though these aren't necessary mutually exclusive events –" Sometimes, Seth did work in full sentences – very full, longwinded sentences.

"Get on with it, Seth." Quil checked his watch pointedly.

"Okay, a) person you are kissing is very good at it; b) you have deeper feelings for them than normal. It's not especially surprising that you would not be able to think during the first kiss with your imprint – it's a very intense moment."

Me and Quil both looked at Seth – he spoke with a lot of authority for someone who had not imprinted yet. "And you know this, how, exactly?" Quil inquired.

"I may not have imprinted, but I have had a few thought-free kisses – which are entirely different from thought_less _kisses." He checked his watch and hopped off the counter. "We should get back to the garage, Jacob."

The garage? Yes, I worked there. I had walked out of there half an hour ago for a beer – had it been until so recently that gravity had been the dominant force in keeping me on the ground? Even so soon after imprinted it felt strange to think that at one time I had been governed by the forces of physics, not by _her._ I sighed and smiled as I thought of her – Seth rolled his eyes and made some comment that sounded a lot like, "not _another_ one!" He grabbed me by the sleeve and propelled me out of the door, calling out goodbye to Quil. Dazed as I was, it took me some time to realise I had not done the same – by this time we were a block away and it would have looked stupid to yell goodbye to Quil, even though he would have heard it.


	10. Chapter 10

JPOV

I made it an hour before Seth threw down his tools in exasperation and ordered me to go home. I fell over trying to get the overalls off and pegged it out of there before Seth could change his mind. I sprinted home, faster than I should have – people stared as I overtook a car – but I did not care. I had to get home to tell Billy, to tell Sam, to tell everyone. I had to find the highest point I could and yell to everyone in the Olympic Peninsula that I, Jacob Black, mechanic and wolf shape shifter, had imprinted and was in LOVE. L.O.V.E.

Such a ridiculously small word for such a HUGE emotion.

I ploughed into the house, running right past Billy, and Sue who was sat on the sofa. Billy called me back and I spun on the spot to rush back. The rug underneath me twisted and I ended up smacking my knee on the doorjamb but I did not care. I WAS IN LOVE!

"Jacob, what are you doing here?" I had an apartment about five minutes away – more for after dates than anything else, since I still ate most meals here. Rachel and I were always dropping in on my dad. He complained that he thought marriage, parenthood and employment meant he had got rid of us, but we knew he did not mean it – he always looked thrilled when we came over, especially when Rach brought over her little girl, Daphne, which was most of the times she came over.

"Dad, there's this girl, her name's Nessie, even though she told Seth her name was Carlie – it's really her middle name, I don't know why she gave Seth a false name but it doesn't really matter because it's beside the point – and she came into the garage, but I didn't see her because I was under the car, but then me and Seth went to Quil's shop and she walked in and I imprinted and we kissed and then she left because Charlie was worried about her- I don't know who Charlie is, you don't think it's her boyfriend do you? – hey, you had a friend Charlie a few years ago, I wonder what happened to him? – anyway I just wanted to drop in and tell you that." I took a deep breath since I had not breathed since I started to talk. Dad and Sue looked slightly dazed – I don't think they understood it all, but I don't know why. I understood what I said perfectly.

"Jacob, slower and with pauses, please. There was a girl, correct?" Billy tried to make sense of what I now realised must have been a rather garbled and incomprehensible speech.

"A girl? No, she was a . . . a . . . a _goddess!_ She had long bronze hair, and amazing brown eyes, and a _mouth_." Embarrassingly, I may have swooned slightly when I remembered her mouth and ended up sprawled across the sofa without being able to remember how I got there exactly.

"Okay, this 'goddess'," Billy smirked and exchanged a look with Sue, who seemed to be trying very hard not to laugh. "She first came to the garage, yes?" I nodded, unable to speak. "But you didn't see her there, no?" I shook my head. "Right. So you and Seth went to the store and that's when you met and imprinted on . . . what was her name?"

"Nessie Carlie . . . something, I don't know. She told Seth her name was Carlie, then me her name was Nessie. I thought it was strange that she gave herself two names, but she was very honest about it when Seth asked her." I wanted Billy to understand that Nessie was not a liar – there was clearly a reason why Nessie had given herself a different name. Billy meanwhile had gone very, very pale.

"You said she was travelling with a guy named Chuck, right?" Billy croaked, slightly desperate sounding.

I shook my head. "No, his name is Charlie."

Billy groaned and put his head in his hands. Next to him, Sue's eyes widened as she seemed to realise something. She grabbed Billy's arm. Strangely, all Billy did was look at her and nod, making her choke out, "oh, god. What do we do?"

I was very confused and slightly scared at this point – what was going on. Why was this so bad?

"Dad? Dad, you home? Oh, hi Jake, Sue." Rachel walked in, holding Daphne's hand as the three year old toddled in. With a great "Unca Jake!" Daph threw herself at my legs. Grabbing her, I tossed her into the air, making her squeal, before settling her on my lap. Rachel seemed to notice the distracted, automatic way I did this and looked from my face, to Dad's, to Sue's and back. "What's going on? What happened? Is it Paul? Is he okay?" She was getting herself worked up – imprinting worked both ways.

"No, it's not Paul," I needed Rach to calm down; it must not be good for the baby for her to get so stressed so quickly. "It's me, apparently. I think I imprinted on the wrong person."

"How ridiculous, you can't imprint on the wrong person, you –" she broke off as she processed what I had said. "Oh, Jake! You imprinted? That's wonderful. I was beginning to wonder, to be honest."

"Apparently, you're the only one who thinks so. Dad and Sue started freaking out. Thanks, by the way." It was nice to have someone who _hadn't _seen you imprint congratulating you; made it more real somehow, like the three of us in Quil's shop hadn't all just had the same vivid hallucination.

"So, what's wrong?" Rachel looked from Billy to Sue, searching their faces for clues.

"Jacob imprinted on Nessie, Rach. Charlie's Nessie." That pissed me off – she wasn't _Charlie's _Nessie, she was _Jacob's _Nessie, only no one, including her, knew it yet.

Rachel had gone as pale as the other two and sat down heavily on the sofa. "Oh god." She said faintly, repeating, word to word, what Sue had said not so long ago, "what do we do?"

"Okay, what the hell?" I thundered. Daphne jumped in my arms, looking shocked – she had never heard me shout before. Rachel glared at me for the language and volume used in front of her daughter. She held out her arms and I gladly dropped Daphne on her lap – I was getting angry and the last person I wanted to hurt if I changed was my sweet as pie niece. "Most guys, when they imprint, get a friggin' _party!_ Even Sam, who, I may remind you Sue, broke your daughter's _heart _when he imprinted, got understanding and a slap on the back. Me, though! I tell my family I imprinted and you guys act like I say I've got three months to live! So, What. The. Hell. Is. Up?"

"Jacob, there's a council meeting tonight. Why don't you bring Nessie and Charlie, if he'll come, and we can all talk about it. There's stuff you don't know." Billy was doing the reasonable thing – cheap trick, it was hard to be angry at your wheelchair bound father, especially when he was being _reasonable._

"But she does?" I pointed to Rachel, who nodded.

"Paul told me the night he imprinted. He told me everything – he said he wanted me to know it all, so I could walk away if I wanted to. He didn't want to lie to me." Rachel looked sad. Getting up, she said, "you know, we'll be at the meeting tonight, too. I want to be there to see how it pans out. Jacob, I just want you to know, whatever happens tonight, I'm on your side and I'm sorry this couldn't be more simple." With that enigmatic remark, Rachel carried Daphne out of the house and walked away.

"But, I –" I couldn't finish. This was my imprint! My forever love at first sight! What the hell was going on?

"I know this must be difficult, Jacob. We won't ask anything you can't do. Don't worry, son," Billy rolled himself over to me and took my hand, patting it. I stared down at our hands blankly, trying to understand what he was saying. "It will all be okay, I promise."

"I should go." Sue stood up and slung her bag over her shoulder. "Billy, should I tell anyone or . . . ?"

"Maybe if we give people a head's up, it won't be so bad this evening – it'll give them time to get their heads around it."

Sue nodded. "I'll call Leah, she'll want to be here for this." She also left and it was just me and Dad in our sitting room, Dad determinedly looking at anything but me, me still in a daze – one that was not so pleasant as the one that had followed the kiss. This one was accompanied by the cold sense of dread that had settled like a dead weight in my stomach.

_Okay, there you go. Pretty quick, huh? Probably because I've written up to Chapter fifteen. And I really wanted to ask you guys something. I have written a fan fiction about Jared and Kim. Yes, there is nothing sacred to Angst Queen chainofcommand – cue infighting, slamming doors and a girl who kicks her imprinter out of the house. Twice._

_So, question, with the first twenty four chapters written and with me having no ability to stop until it reaches its conclusion, should I post it? Would you guys read it?_

_Let me know when you REVIEW._

_All my love, because it's New Years and I can._

_Chainofcommand_


	11. Chapter 11

_Dedication: to every rocking person that has reviewed! 'Cause you're awesome._

_Okay, eighties slang moment over, here we go._

_Cue the tension. _

NPOV

How the hell I made it back to the motel I will never know – I don't even remember the journey; my mind was still back at that store where that guy, Jacob, had kissed me. Normally, I'm not the kind of girl that gets grabbed and kissed by a guy who is, at that point, nameless. Not without kneeing him in the crotch as a reward. But with Jacob it had been different, _he_ was different. It felt right being held by him, being kissed by him.

I never believed in love at first sight – lust may be but not love. I did not believe that you could look at someone and say 'yep, I love you, let's get to the church because, baby, you're the one.' But with Jacob, I don't know, there _was_ that feeling, the feeling I had been told about, that part of me just _knew _I was meant to be with him. I had spent one minute in his arms and now I felt lost without them around me. I was unanchored. Vulnerable.

Me! Vulnerable! The half vampire ninja queen! I could kick the ass of anyone that came within five feet of me, but I couldn't make it across town without some strapping, muscled mechanic who was gorgeous and tall and . . .

Mind melt. Dear god, what was happening to me! I couldn't help the vulnerability. It was not the 'oh help, I'm a damsel in distress' vulnerability. Just because Jacob was across town did not mean I was any less capable or strong. It was just – with Jacob around, I felt _safe. _I could do anything, because he was there. Without that, I was vulnerable; because I was falling for the safety I had always wanted but never had. Charlie had tried, but he was only human, much less strong than what might after me. We couldn't stay in one place longer than a few weeks because of my accelerated aging and our constant fear of being discovered.

We had found, from the nomads that we had sometimes come across, that there was some kind of vampire hierarchy. This lot fancied themselves the vampire elite, a mixture between royalty and government, making sure everyone stayed in line and kept the secret. They were talked of with a combination of fear and awe, the Volturi. The vampire populace honestly believed we needed them, even though it had been a long while since anyone had been stupid even to stand up amongst the humans and say 'hey, look at me! I'm a vampire, grrrr!'

The Volturi was made up of three rulers, their wives and the 'guard' most of who, like me, had extra powers. Charlie and I had figured out early on that staying off this lot's radar had to be our most important priority – they could set the whole vampire race after us. The most talked of ruler, the main leader as it were, was a vamp named Aro – he was the one I was most keen to avoid, the one with a reason to come after us. From what they said, Aro was a collector of sorts, he loved the unusual, the unique – ancient treasures, priceless antiquities. But his most prized possessions were those in his _living_ collection – vampires with special abilities. Charlie and I knew that as a half vampire – something unheard of anyway – with the power to put _my _thoughts into _other people's _minds, I would be highly sought after. What they would do to Charlie to get to me scared the hell out of me. I couldn't hurt him anymore than I already had; his nomadic lifestyle was all because of me, he had lost his only child because of me. I had to use the power and strength I had to keep him safe.

I got back in one piece, parking the bike in a space directly below our room. Running up the stairs and along the balcony, I opened the door to room 7. Charlie was watching TV, spread out over the bed. "Great," he said at the sound of my arrival, "lunch." Turning over, he saw that I was lunchless; he sat up. Then he saw the look on my face. "Nessie, sweetheart, are you okay?" I nodded dumbly. Shooting to his feet, Charlie grabbed my shoulders and steered me to a bed. When the back of my knees hit the bed, I gratefully sank down. Charlie sat on the bed opposite me and took my hand in both his larger ones.

"Nessie, what's wrong? Talk to me, kiddo. Did someone recognise you? Do we need to leave? Were you followed? We don't have to get the truck, we have the bike, you could leave on the bike right now. I'll follow you later, when the truck's ready, when it's safe." I was barely listening as Charlie made plans to keep us safe. "Nessie, for god's sake," he took me by the shoulders again and roughly shook me to my senses. "What has happened? Are you okay?"

A dopey kind of grin came across my face and Charlie looked like he was worried about my mental health. "Yeah, Grandpa, I'm okay. I think – I think I just fell in love." I gave a small, disbelieving laugh and Charlie frowned.

"Fell in love? With who?" Chief Charlie was gone, replaced by father figure Charlie.

"A guy called Jacob. He owns garage in town, where the truck is."

"Jacob? Jacob Black?"

"No idea. Why do you think he could be related to Billy Black?" I did not like the sound of where this was going.

"Billy has a son called Jacob. He would be about, ooh, twenty three by now."

"My Jacob looked a little over – twenty five, maybe." My Jacob – I liked the sound of that.

"Twenty five? Don't you think that's a little old for you? Like eighteen years to old?" Not this song and dance again.

"Grandpa!" I dragged the word out. "Do we _have _to do this _again_?"

"Of course we do! You're seven years old!" Charlie was getting worked up. Again.

"Grandpa, in all the ways that matter – physically, mentally, emotionally – I am an _adult_. Ok, so I have only _technically _been _alive _for seven years – Jacob would not believe me if I told him anyway!"

"So, you're going to lie to him!" Charlie pounced on this idea. "It's not healthy to lie, Nessie. If you are planning to lie to him from the moment you meet, something is seriously wrong!"

I rolled my eyes. "Grandpa, I'm not going to lie to him, I'm just not going to tell him until it comes up."

"It'll probably never come up!"

"Exactly. Don't you think he's going to have a hard enough time when I tell him I'm a vampire-human hybrid?"

"So you're going to tell him that, then?" Charlie did not look so thrilled about me sharing _that_ truth.

"I have to," as soon as I said it, I knew it was true, "it's who I am. I can't hide it and I don't want to. I'm sick of lying, Grandpa. I want _one _person in the world who knows who and what I really am, and loves me anyway."

"I know and I love you," Charlie mumbled – he was not great at sharing his feelings, something we had in common.

"I love you, too, Grandpa, more than anyone." We looked away from each other. It was easier to tell your knees how you felt than the person you were actually talking to.

There was a knock at the door. We both went on red alert; Charlie put his hand on the gun tucked into the back of his waistband, I tugged off one of my gloves. When we were both ready with our respective incapacitators, I opened the door; it was Jacob. My face split into a grin at the sight of him.

"Hey, Seth told me where you were, I hope you don't mind me dropping in," Jacob looked worried. That made me worried – and anxious to comfort him.

"No, I don't mind. I wanted to see you again. Come in, Charlie's waiting to meet you," Charlie harrumphed behind me, but I could hear the concern lacing the sound – would Jacob recognise Charlie?

"Uh, hi, er, hello, sir." Jacob held out his hand. Charlie stared at it for a few seconds until I glared at him and motioned him to shake Jacob's hand. He took his right hand off the gun, which Jacob couldn't see, thank god, and shook Jacob's outstretched hand. Jacob let out the breath he had been holding and some of the tension in his shoulders dissipated.

"Jacob," Charlie said. He did not really bother shaving anymore and a few days worth of stubble covered his face, evidently it kept people around here from recognising him. I breathed my own sigh of relief when the conversation started flowing, albeit stilted, and the mention of Charlie being familiar did not come up.

"Er, this is kind of awkward but, with everything that happened in the shop today," at this point Jacob glanced at Charlie.

"Don't worry, I told Charlie that we met today. He knows what happened." Charlie harrumphed again.

"Well, everyone has an opinion. There's a meeting tonight and people were hoping to . . . meet you." I did not miss the slight pause as he spoke but my biggest concern was the mention of the council meeting. My first had not gone well, I did not see my second going any better. I exchanged a look with Charlie – the chances of him being recognised there were phenomenal.

"Do we have a choice?"

"No, we don't." Jacob clumped himself with me and Charlie. I tried to ignore the thrill that went down my spine to focus on the conversation.

"If we have to go, we'll go."

"We could leave. Right now." Charlie was enthusiastic about this plan. I felt sick to my stomach. Jacob actually came up behind me and locked his arms around my waist as though he would stop me leaving – as though I wanted to leave.

"Charlie, we can't leave. I'm tired of running, Charlie. We don't have to anymore."

"Really? Because it kind of seems like we do." Charlie started to pace.

"Charlie, please, just come to the meeting. I don't know what you and my dad and everyone else are afraid of, but I want to find out. Whatever it is, it won't make me lose Nessie." Jacob's arms tightened around me and I laid my hands over his. Everything was suddenly weighing down on me and it felt so good to be able to rest against someone else for once. I had never really leant on Charlie like that – he had given up so much for me I did not want to worry him further.

Three hours later we were all at the meeting. The elders were sat at the same long table as they had been seven years ago; everyone else was gathered in rows of chair. I felt like I was being dragged in front of a tribunal. I had Jacob on one side, Charlie on the other, the two people I cared about most. The only two people I cared about.

We had to sit in the front row. The whole pack and everyone related to it was there, Jacob had told me about them all; Jared and his wife Kim, Paul and the ever expanding Rachel (they had left Daphne at home with a babysitter), Seth and his sister Leah, Brady (since his imprint, Amanda, was thirteen she was not there), Embry, Collin. Emily was there too, the only one not sat with her imprinter as Sam was sat with the other elders. Only there was a change at the elder table – there was a woman instead of the man Charlie had identified as Harry Clearwater.

Charlie noticed, too. Jacob had told him about Harry's death shortly after we had left town. Charlie was a quiet as ever, but the silence was more sombre, more difficult to deal with, as Charlie struggled with the loss of his friend.

"Welcome once again Renesmee, Charlie," Quil Aetera Senior was quiet as ever but he seemed frailer; Jacob said he was ninety-three. "It seems you have seen fit to return to us."

"Blame Seattle traffic," Charlie glared at the four of them. Forgiving and forgetting was not Charlie's strong point. "And a cracked radiator."

"How are you, Charlie?" asked Billy. Concern wrinkled his forehead. He looked older than I remembered, older than I had expected him to look.

"Great. No one's tried to kill my kid since we got here." The acid in Charlie's voice made Billy wince. "Of course, that's probably because no one knew. I imagine it's going to be different now."

"We're not going to hurt Renesmee, Charlie. It's against tribal law to harm the object of a wolf's imprint."

"But not your friend's grandchild. Nice."

"Charlie –"

"Why are we here?" Charlie crossed his arms across his chest, making it clear they had to get on with it.

"We wanted to apprise everyone of the situation." Sue put in her two cents and her foot in her mouth.

"So I'm a situation now!" Two minutes in and I was already getting pissed.

"You two are not the only newcomers in town. The Cullens have returned." Hissing and mutterings broke out around the room at Uley's words. "We came across their scent this morning."

I looked at Jacob, who shook his head. He had not been on that patrol.

Charlie went pale. "They're back? Why?"

"We don't know. Do they know about you?"

"No. They left before my mom found out she was pregnant and she died without them coming back. I met my dad about a year ago – he randomly turned up where Charlie and I worked – but he didn't seem to know. He can read minds but I left the room the moment I realised who he was – I wasn't ready to deal with it, yet. When I came back he was like a statue. I don't know what happened while I was gone."

"I thought Edward about Bella," Charlie filled in the gaps – we had never really spoken about what happened that night a year ago. "When he found out Bella was dead he became catatonic. Nessie came back in the room and we spoke a little – enough for him to have understood he had fathered a child, I think, if he had been paying attention. When Edward became, I don't know, responsive again he left pretty quickly – just said he had to go and left. We never heard anything else from him, so we supposed he didn't know about Nessie being his daughter."

"So why have they returned?"

"Maybe they like the place. It wouldn't be the first time they returned to Forks," Seth observed.

"Yeah," Jared spoke up, "but they waited years to come back – a human lifetime so that no one in living memory would know them. So why are they suddenly coming back after seven years?"

"You said Edward did not know about Bella's death?" Leah asked Charlie, who nodded. "Maybe he came back to see her grave. Maybe he really loved her and wanted to say goodbye."

"But why wait a year?" someone else spoke. Jacob whispered in my ear that this was Brady.

A horrible thought struck me. "Charlie, you said the Edward really loved Bella, yes?" Charlie nodded once more. "How much would you say?"

"From the way Bella spoke about him, he seemed to be her whole world, until you."

"Yes, but how did _he _feel about _her_?" I pushed for an answer. I wanted him to prove my theory wrong.

"The same, I imagine. She told me what he did when James was after her. He was terrified of losing her. I saw firsthand his reaction to her death. Even without knowing what had happened he blamed himself. He said he only did it so she could have a full life. That he had been in agony so she could be safe. I think he truly loved her."

"Leah's right," my legs gave. Jacob caught me and lowered me into my seat. "He's saying to goodbye. But not to Mom, to everything."

"What are you saying?" Billy, and everyone else, seemed very confused. I stood up again and began pacing along the front, up and down the length of the table. All eyes were on me, trying to make sense of what I was saying. I knew I was right – my gut told me so – but I did not really have the evidence.

"I'm saying that Edward has come back to die. He has come here to say goodbye to Bella – the one thing he never managed to do. I've known people that have planned to die – they spend time with their family, giving them a last few good memories. To a century old vampire, a year would be a short time."

"But why did the whole family move back? Emily asked.

"If someone you loved was planning to die, wouldn't you try to stop them?" Jacob asked, looking at Sam. Sam held his gaze, and then looked at Emily. She had tears in her eyes. I wondered how far Sam had gone to show he was sorry when he saw what he had done to Emily.

The tension in the room mounted even higher. I felt it weighing on my chest like a physical manifestation.

"Sooo," Seth tried to break the tension. "Should we go talk to the Cullens?"

"Sounds like a plan. But the whole pack can't go – they may see it as an aggressive move to make them leave." Sam addressed the group.

"I'm going," Jacob said, automatically.

"Me, too," Quil and Embry spoke at the same time. Of course they would go if Jacob was going – they seemed to be his wingmen.

"I have to go," I said. "If I come with you they won't take it as you attacking them. Once we tell them about Jacob and me they'll know that they're only there as a precaution."

"Can we return to the matter at hand?" Quil Aetera Senior was trying to return the meeting to the matter of me and Charlie, and away from the reconnaissance mission to the Cullens. "The reason we met was to discuss the matter of Jacob Black imprinting on the vampire-human hybrid Renesmee Swan."

"There's nothing to discuss," Jacob said. "I imprinted. Four others have imprinted before me. I don't remember it requiring a council meeting."

"The others didn't imprint on a _vampire_!" Aetera spat.

"I'm not a vampire! I am hybrid – never been a vampire, never been human." Now I just wanted to leave.

"Granddad, you have to admit, Nessie has more in common with us than vampires. She has a heartbeat, she warmer than any human, like us." I appreciated Quil backing me up, but his grandfather seemed just too stubborn.

"She aged rapidly then stopped aging at all, just like us when we begin the change." Now Embry stood to speak. Aetera clearly did not like the idea of one of La Push's Protectors imprinting on a part vampire and did not want to accept me. Billy and Sue were sat silently, not wanting to be part of the argument either way – their past friendship with Charlie warring with the ingrained prejudices against vampires. Sam Uley was clearly not happy with Jacob imprinting on me, but he understood that imprinting was not something you can change or stop. Everyone was caught between their tribal judgements and their love of Jacob.

"We understand that the imprinting cannot be underdone. Jacob loves Nessie, this we have accepted. But the question is whether they can continue to live here given Renesmee's nature as a part vampire." Aetera was about to get his moment. "It is my belief that they cannot. Jacob cannot prevent his feelings for the hybrid, nor can we ignore her nature. We cannot wait for her to lose control and attack someone."

Then it was Billy's turn. "Jacob is my son and Renesmee is the grandchild of my closest friend. I made the mistake of letting ancient feuds dictate my actions and I lost my friend as I result. I will not make that mistake again. If Jacob wants to be with Nessie and Nessie returns these affections then I will support that relationship. I won't lose anymore of my family. As far as I am concerned, Jacob and Nessie will always be welcome."

"Sue?"

Sue took a deep breath before beginning. "I agree with Billy. Harry loved Charlie like a brother and it broke his heart when Charlie left because of what tribal protocol had forced him to do. I have a child whose heart was broke by imprinting – I won't break someone else's and I won't make someone choose between their love for their partner and their love for their family. That Nessie is a half vampire is beside the point – she has not broken the treaty. If Jacob has imprinted on Nessie, I will welcome it like any other imprint."

Aetera was getting more angry – only Sam was left and no one knew which way he would go. "Sam?"

Sam took time to answer. "This life is difficult – nothing is chosen by us. We did not choose to change and we do not choose to imprint. Sometimes I think it is not worth it. I imprinted and it hurt someone I cared about very much, I am still sorry for that. Being a shifter made me dangerous – I caused permanent scars on the one who is the centre of my world. Renesmee has done no such thing – she has not hurt anyone and she did not choose to be what she is anymore than any of the rest of us. Like us, she was born this way. If Jacob and Nessie must leave because they imprinted, then so must Emily and I – our relationship caused much more pain than theirs has."

No one wanted Sam to leave – if he was on our side, then so were the rest of them. I smiled my thanks; Sam nodded. Jacob squeezed my hand.

"If I may add something?" Jacob stood up.

"What is it, Jake?" Billy asked before Aetera could say no.

"You said once that no one knows why we imprint, why we love so much, why the feeling are so intense. One theory you gave was that we imprint on the person who has the best chance of continuing the line. Maybe there's something in that – maybe Nessie and I will have stronger children. If there is vampire blood in them, the wolf gene will be activated from the moment their born – La Push will always have Protectors."

"Is that what you want, Jake?" Sue asked with motherly concern obvious in her voice. "To have your children be shifters from the moment they're born?"

"No, but I want to be with Nessie. And I want to understand why, if Nessie has never hurt anyone, if she's not a vampire, why this meeting was necessary."

Aetera Senior was still pissy. "This meeting was necessary because she _has _hurt someone and she _is _a vampire."

"What happened to Bella was not Nessie's fault – we've been through all this before. And she is a half vampire. She is also half human. That's more human than your wolf boys." Charlie was just as angry as Aetera. Everyone else was just getting increasingly uncomfortable, not understanding why any of us were still here.

Sam stood up. "This meeting is pointless and now it is over. Everyone go home; Jacob, you, Quil and Embry are taking Nessie to see the Cullens to find out why they're here. Go tomorrow and report back to me tomorrow night. Renesmee, we understand if you want to stay with the Cullens for a while to get to know you're family."

"You are advocating association with a vampire coven?" Aetera was spitting mad now.

"I am advocating being a part of your family." That shut Aetera up – Jacob had filled me in on Sam's childhood and it did not surprise me that he wanted families to stick together, to have what he did not have growing up.

So that was it, meeting adjourned. Tomorrow, I turn up on my father and his family doorstep, seven years after killing Bella. _That's_ going to be a fun conversation.

_I just want to clarify one thing – no one's brought it up or anything I just wanted to explain. Nessie isn't being cold or unfeeling through this chapter; she's the kind of person that becomes flippant when things get rough or emotional. It's her defence mechanism – think Dean Winchester if any of you watch Supernatural (which you should). There wasn't any way to get that across in the chapter so I thought I would give a little AN. _

_Okay, that's it._

_Review, please! You guys are good at that and I appreciate it so much!!_


	12. Chapter 12

_Okay, this was not in the original story but I got some reviews saying they didn't get Nessie's behaviour or that it seemed like she and Jacob got together too quick without any explanation. I do apologise for that but when I wrote the first draft I sat down and wrote and that was what came out. So, here we are; a review requested chapter. I hope you like it and it goes some way to filling in the blanks. Also, we get some more Nessie and Charlie, which I like._

_And hey, Bella's makes an appearance! Wasn't meant to happen, but there we are._

_I think that this may actually be one of my favourite chapters, so good! All in a day's work. _

_So, yes, there is a point to reviewing – to tell me if you like or if you don't. Ask and ye shall receive as they say. SO DO IT! You never know, you may get another chapter out of it._

_Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy!_

"Okay, kid," Charlie sat down on the bed opposite mine. It was just me and him, Jacob having gone home with his dad after the meeting to 'talk'. "Fess up. What was going on in that meeting?"

I looked up. "What do you mean? I didn't do anything?"

"That's precisely my point, Ness," Charlie said. "Since when do you take anything? Especially the 'anything' like that Aetera bastard was throwing at you? Now, I wanted to hit him, but you, you just stood there. Kind of freaked me out!"

"Me not hitting a ninety three year old? _That's _what freaked you out?" I said, trying to lighten the mood but Charlie was not having it. He did not say it but his expression told me this was not over until we had talked. "I wanted to; believe me I wanted to smack them. Everything they were saying about me and you and Mom, I wanted to hit them all.  
"You right, Gramps, you know me – when I get hit, I hit back. Hard. It's the only thing I know how to do.  
"But what would that have done? Aetera would have been proved right that the hybrid freak can't control herself. The people that were on our side were only on it either because they were Jacob's family or because they considered _you _family once. I had nothing to do with it. They decided _in spite _of what I am. I couldn't give them a reason turn against me."

"Because..." Charlie said. Damn him knowing me so well!

"Because," I began. Screw it, I thought, just say it, "because they're Jake's family or pack or tribe or what the hell ever. Gramps, I can't make him choose between me and them, I just can't."

"He would choose you," Charlie said, taking my hand.

I held his, grateful for the comfort. "I know. And then he would be unhappy. He would choose me because he imprinted and he has to but he would lose every person that he's ever known. He's giving up so much...I don't want him to give up that.  
"When Edward came up, I thought of everything he had done because he felt like he had to make the choice between Mom and his family. For her sake, he chose to leave and it killed them both. Whatever kept Edward here died when you told him Mom was gone. You saw it in his eyes – it was over for him, in that instant. I don't ever want to get to that point with Jake, Grandpa. I couldn't do it – I'm not as strong as my dad." It was the first time I had ever owned the fact that Edward was my dad – not just the man who fathered me but my _dad. _We both started at this but Charlie did not talk about it.

"I can't believe twenty four hours ago my biggest problem was a cracked radiator," Charlie said. "This whole imprinting thing had got me freaked out, just so you know."

"Yeah," I nodded and gave a small laugh. "Me, too. My head's still spinning."

"So slow it down, kid. You've known Jacob _eight hours_ and you guys are already thinking about the rest of forever," Charlie said, frowning in worry.

"I know, Grandpa. I know it's crazy and it's fast and we met and then it was like there was nothing between the imprint and the meeting but there was. There was these three amazing hours that made all the difference." I told Charlie about me and Jacob and the walk we had gone on...

_...The motel room was small and I needed space. If I was going to be in that Council meeting, I needed to know that there was somewhere I could run when it all went wrong like I thought it would._

_Jacob took my hand as soon as I had closed the door. We walked down the stairs and headed for the forest that seemed everywhere here._

"_So, this is weird," I said._

_Jacob started to let go of my hand, hurt. "Sorry, I just wanted to..."_

_I grabbed his hand with both of mine to keep the contact, panicked. Not like me at all. I'm icy ninja queen! "No, not that! This," I squeezed his hand with mine, "is good. This is nice. All this," I waved my arm to encompass us and our surroundings, "is weird. Four hours ago I didn't know you and now I would die for you. It's just...a bit much to take in."_

_Fear and pain had crossed Jacob's face when I mentioned me dying but it passed. "I know it is. I've seen imprinted but to experience it," he let out a whistle, "whole other league."_

"_Really?"_

_Jacob nodded. "Oh, yeah. It's like playing flight simulator on Playstation then someone giving you a jet plane and saying, 'okay, go!' It's a lot."_

_I let out a sigh of relief. "Not just me then. I thought I was just doing this badly. You know, 'cause of the whole half-vampire thing."_

_Jacob stopped. I was not expecting it so ended up stumbling back into him when I kept going. His arm slipped around my waist. "You know I don't care about that, don't you? Half-vampire, human whatever, Ness. You could be Medusa or a politician and I wouldn't care. I love you. Just you, all of you. Nessie."_

_Okay, I will admit, at that point, I melted. My knees gave out and everything. Very embarrassing, especially for the ninja ice queen but when you got a 6'7" insanely ripped and gorgeous guy holding you to his chest telling you he loves you? Yeah, you end up looking like the cover of a cheap romance novel. Even when he compared you to a plane. And Medusa – kind of. _

"_Gah," I sighed._

"_Huh?" Jacob got me on my feet again._

"_Sorry," I shook my head to clear it – did not work. "That was meant to be 'I love you, too, Jake. Always.'"_

"_Good," Jacob gave a 1,000 mega watt smile and... what the hell is wrong with my knees!!! Ever since meeting Jake they keep giving out on me!!! He kissed the tip of my nose – so not where I wanted his lips! "Come on," he tugged me along the path._

_Over the next couple of hours I heard everything about the pack and the tribe – its history, the stories – not the one that my mom had found out that let her know having me would kill her but that had been an old one. I heard about all the imprints of this pack – there sure were a lot of them for a rare phenomenon. He told me that he was whatever I needed him to be at that moment – best friend, confident, lover. He would have been like a big brother type guy that turns to friend that turns to boyfriend had we met when I was younger. Part of me wished he had been at the house that day when Charlie took me to see Billy. The other part of me, the rational part that had not really got a look in since I met Jake, told me this would have been way to complicated way too quickly. _

"_So, you're whatever I need you to be, huh?" I asked smirking, one eyebrow raised. _

"_Pretty much," Jacob said, holding his arms out to his sides. _

"_You got a pretty high opinion of yourself, don't cha, Mr Black?" I said, walking backwards away from him smiling._

_Jacob gave me a dangerous smile that I swear to God stopped my heart beating for a few seconds. "Well, that's how it works, baby. This," he waved a hand down his magnificent body, "is everything you've ever wanted."_

_I had to give him that one. I just did not have to tell him that. "Really?" I tease, my eyebrows raised, "everything, huh? Phew, I don't know, Jake, I'm pretty high maintenance." High maintenance? Moi? A slice of pizza, a cup of blood and one of those overly gory horror movies that always made me laughed and I was good. _

"_High maintenance, really?" It was Jacob's turn to raise an eyebrow._

"_Absolutely," I said, "really, _really_ high maintenance. You're gonna have to work hard to keep me happy."_

"_You want something sparkly?" Jacob teased._

_This was war._

"_Oh no, honey," I said, putting a hand to my chest – Jacob's eyes did not move from my chest when my hand did. It did not help that I was bending forward just enough for him to see down my shirt. Or that I was wearing a low cut top. I did not plan it, I swear! "Not that kind of maintenance. I don't need a rich guy. I need a guy with...stamina," I smiled sweetly as I leaned against a tree. Jacob's already dark eyes deepened to black and began to smoulder. I bit my lip which did not help the situation._

"_Really?" he said, stalking slowly towards me._

"_Yep," I said carefree, as though excitement and adrenaline was not coursing through me right now. "I mean, half vampire, Jake. I got needs. That werewolf strength of yours might not be enough to keep me...satisfied."_

_Note to self: never question a werewolf's ability to please his imprint in any way. You end up flat on your back with said werewolf looming over you._

"_You think so?" Jacob said, his hands sliding over me._

"_Uh huh," I said. Not original but as much as I could get out with my breath caught in my throat._

"_I can run to Canada and back in a night and you question my...stamina?" Jacob asked, his eyes twinkling as his hand stole up my shirt._

"_I'm a little more demanding than a nice run," I said. His hand covered my breast and he squeezed. I gasped and arched into his touch making him laugh._

"_I'm sure you are," Jacob said, looking down at me. "I guess I'll have to prove it."_

"_Sounds like a plan," I said as he took his T-shirt off. _

_Oh. My. God. _

_Werewolf being exactly what his imprint needs? Yep._

_Beautifully muscled under russet skin that begs to be stroked? Yep._

_Dangerous glint to the eye that sends shiver down the spine of aforementioned imprint, making her wish she could read thoughts instead of putting hers in other people's heads? Yep._

_Extremely skilled hands and mouth that makes imprint glad it is pouring down with rain making no one but two feverishly hot and horny supposed mythical beings the only ones stupid enough to take a walk in the woods? Hell yes!_

_Turns out being able to put your thoughts into your lover's head really steps the game up. I can't control it so Jake knew exactly what I liked and what I did not, and what I wanted. _

_Charlie would have killed me if he had known that I had lost my virginity in the forest with nothing but my coat between me and the floor, and nothing but a shape-shifter covering me – a shape-shifter I had met about an hour ago at this point – but I could not bring myself to care. Jake was with me, inside me, everywhere I looked and everything I touched was him._

_And it felt right. It felt natural._

_One of the reasons why I had never had sex before was because how do you explain to a guy that you must keep your gloves on or he'll be too busy freaking the fuck out at what you can do to get anywhere._

_Jacob's reaction: a raised eyebrow and a smirk as he contemplates the possibilities. Then a lot of dirty talk to get the full effect of my powers. It wasn't my fault! I have an over active imagination...and Jake's very visual._

_He had told me that the wolves were telepathic while in their wolfen forms. Couldn't bring myself to care at that point, though I really didn't want them thinking that I was easy – especially Quil and Seth, the two I had met already. I liked them, having met them before knowing they were wolves though I should have guessed from the size of them, and I didn't want them thinking Jake had ended up with a slut. I wanted them to like me._

_God help me I wanted a bunch of wolves to like me. My world had done a complete one-eighty!_

"_They'll love you fine, Ness," Jake whispered in my ear when my power betrayed my thoughts. "I promise."_

_**They won't, **__I thought.__** They didn't like me then why should they now.**__ I couldn't help the mental replay of my first Council meeting. _

_Jacob snarled when he saw it. A growl ripped out of his throat._

_**I'm sorry**__. The thought was deafening._

"_No, Ness, I'm not mad at you!" Jacob said, nuzzling into my hair and holding me close. "I'll never be mad at you."_

_**But I hurt your brothers that night. I hurt Sam. **_

"_I'm mad at them, not you; they never should have done that! You were a baby." He peppered my face with kisses._

_**I don't want this.**_

_Jacob's head snapped up to look me in the eye. "You don't want this?" he repeated. A dead look came into his eyes as he looked down our bodies, still joined. "I thought you...I never would have if I thought." He slipped out me and pushed himself away, sitting back. _

_I missed him instantly. My body missed his, feeling empty and, for the first time in my life, cold. "No, Jake!" I scrambled to sit in his lap, my legs either side of him. He didn't respond so I held his head in my heads as I kissed him all over his face, more frantic and desperate than his reassuring kisses had been. "I didn't mean that! I'll never mean that!" Slowly his arms came up to circle me and I nearly fainted from relief. But he still wasn't all there with me. I was upset, he was comforting me. He was being what I needed. "Jake, I meant I didn't want you to choose between me and your family. When you got angry at them all I could think was that you were starting the void between you. Jake, I want to be with you, not the reason you're estranged from your tribe. I can't ever ask you to do that – I won't!"_

"_You don't want me to fight with my pack over what they did to you?" Jacob said. His voice was normal but his eyes were still a little blank – they were usually so expressive. "You want me not to be mad at them?"_

_I nodded quickly. "Jake, most of them weren't there and Jared and Paul were only doing what Sam told them to do! And Sam was only doing what his tribe and his pack required of him!" I had been mad at them for so long over what they had done but here I was defending them. But if that's what it took to get the sparkle back into Jacob's eyes that was what I would say._

_The other Elders still scared the crap out of me, making me wary of them. Wary made me dangerous. This meeting would be difficult tonight but I didn't care. For Jake I would do it. And I wouldn't hurt anyone, either. _

_I don't kill – I hate killing. Aetera made me think twice but when we got to the meeting I saw Quil helping a very frail him out of the car. Jacob whispered he was his grandfather and namesake. Which meant I definitely couldn't kill him – young Quil had so much obvious affection and love for the old man it reminded me of Charlie and I. I held on to that thought while he was hurling accusations at me._

"_My dad was crushed after Charlie left," Jacob said quietly. "I was so angry at Charlie; I didn't understand what could be so important that he would leave so abruptly. They met in school, down at the beach. Joshua Uley got into it with one of Charlie's friends. Charlie and Billy got it calmed down before it got physical and they were friends ever since. Charlie met Harry Clearwater and it was like the Three Musketeers were born again," Jacob laughed. "That's how my dad put it. They were so close, like brothers. I get that, with the pack and everything. I know what it is to love someone like a brother when they're not blood."_

_My heart ached for Charlie. "I know Charlie loved them, too. It damn near killed him to leave but he said he had already lost my mom, he wasn't going to lose me, too." I hung my head, hating myself. "Everyone loses because of me. I don't want that for you, Jake! Don't you see? That's why I don't want you to fight with them, not over me, not ever! I saw Charlie go by every day without his friends and I saw what it did to Edward to lose my mom. Because of me! The people I love lost everything because of me! My dad lost his only love. My mom lost hers _and_ her life. Charlie lost the only family that hadn't turned their backs on him when he married Renee." I squeezed my eyes shut but the tears still slid down my cheeks. "That weight is on my shoulders. I won't hurt you like that, Jake. I won't break you."_

_His hand cupped my cheek and I held his wrist, leaning into the caress. He pulled me close and I clung to him as I had never clung to anyone. "You won't break me, Nessie. I promise I'll always be strong for you. The only thing that can hurt me is your pain." His warm hand brushed away my tears, replacing them with kisses. "I don't ever want to see you cry. It's like...it's like someone's driving a red-hot poker into the pit of my stomach. I can't stand it."_

"_I'm sorry," I gulped. My hands slipped to the bare skin of his shoulders and he was bombarded with thoughts of how much I loved him._

_He gave that husky laugh that I had come to love. "I love you, too," he said, kissing me on the nose again (what was that? What it a wolf thing? Should I talk to Emily or Kim or one of the other kissable-imprints? because seriously, my lips are only about an inch below my nose. Jake may be tall but it's not an impossible distance). He checked the time on my watch. "Damn it," he muttered. "We should get going. The meeting is in twenty minutes and we look..."_

"_...like we made love on a forest floor?" I supplied brightly. _

_Jacob laughed out loud. "Yeah, exactly." He stood up with me in his arms and let me slide to my feet. _

"_At least you've got short hair," I said. Mine was a hive of twisted hair and debris._

_He told me it used to be long – over his shoulders long – but he had to cut it when he became a wolf or his coat was a pain in the ass at that length. I suddenly looked forward to the day when I could see him with long hair. But that would mean he would age. I never would. He would age one day, leave me – die on me. My power gave him my thoughts and he was once again the one keeping me upright._

"_Whoa, whoa, whoa," he said, catching my arms. "Not gonna happen, Ness, okay? I'll keep shifting. We won't ever grow old, okay? Never. We'll be twenty-five and twenty-three looking for ever, okay?"_

_I nodded numbly. We got dressed – our clothes were soaked but whatever. I pulled him close for a huge cuddle as soon as my gloves were on and my muddled thoughts were my own once more. _

_Jacob walked me back to the motel. Charlie was already gone – he said he was going to get something to eat before the meeting to hell – so I had the room to myself as Jacob kissed me and ran back to his apartment._

_We had no time for showers so we both made do with changing our clothes and I dragged a brush through my bronze ringlets, trying to untangle the snarls and get all the twigs and leaves out of my hair. My head hurt by the end but my brush was filled with my supposedly immortal hair but then again my body did change, unlike full vampires. Otherwise I wouldn't have a heartbeat or a menstrual cycle, granted far less frequently than humans. I had a period about once every six months, had done since I was four. It was the only time Charlie was afraid of me. I was a bitch on the rag. A bitch with a tendency to bite. Thank goodness I'm not venomous._

_Menstrual cycle. That caught me up for a moment. Being a virgin and having no intention of surrendering my V-card to a shape-shifting mechanic twenty four hours after arriving in town, I was not on the Pill, nor did I have protection with me. Jacob couldn't fit anything else besides himself in those clothes and neither of us had been thinking about it when we...consummated our relationship. _

_Please, I thought, don't let me be pregnant from today! That's one complication too many in an already fucked up situation._

_I wondered if me and Jake could have babies. He was a shape shifter and I was a human/vampire hybrid. His kind existed to kill vampires, beings like half of what I was. The thought of not being able to give Jake children made me hollow. I put my hand to my womb, praying that I could have his _child just not right now.

_There was a knock at the front door five minutes before the meeting was due to start. Opening I found I more smartly dressed Jacob than I was used to. Black, non ripped, jeans hugged the long legs while a buttoned blue shirt hid the lean torso. I kinda missed the grease stained wifebeater but I had to admit – Jake looking fucking hot. _

_He seemed to think the same about me, taking in the jeans, long sleeve blouse and waistcoat I was wearing. The blouse was unbuttoned to show a little more cleavage than usual but his smile showed he appreciated it._

"_Let's go, gorgeous," he said, taking my hand. _

_Together we ran as fast as we could through the forest to the meeting, getting there about a minute after we left the motel. I loved being able to run with someone who could keep up with me for once and wished we could have run for longer but playtime was over and the battle was about to commence._

_We met Charlie outside and he noted the change of clothes but didn't mention it. He had stubbornly stayed in his old jeans and chequered shirt – it was a meeting not a fashion parade as he had put before me and Jake had left that afternoon. _

_That's when I saw Old and Young Quil get out of the car..._

...and the rest Charlie knew. I finished my story (having glazed over certain amorous details...and risk of possible pregnancy, since unprotected sex was how this whole story started seven and a half years ago).

Charlie nodded. "So, it was not so instant then," he said.

"The love? Yes. The relationship? Not so much," I told him.

"It's still kinda fast, kiddo," Charlie said, running a hand over his worried face. "And then with meeting your dad and his family tomorrow – I'm just worried you're opening your heart to too many people at once. I don't want it to get broken."

I knew he was worried that I may chose the more durable immortals over him. It was the logical choice. But love isn't logical. And nothing was taking Charlie from me.

"Don't worry, Grandpa," I said, covering his hand with my other one. "Jake's the man I love. Edward is the man who fathered me. But you're the man who raised me. You were the one who told me stories all night when I was ill, and checked under my bed and in the closet for monsters. You were the one who never forgot my birthday, or Mom's, the one who gave me as normal as I could have. Whatever happens next, it won't change that. I love Jake I do, but you are the most precious person in the world to me. If I lost you, I don't know what I'd do. You're my mom and my dad and my gramps and my whole damn whole in one person. I'd tear the world apart for you, Grandpa. I would."

Neither of us could really deal with my sudden outpour of emotion – seven years of him and me in thirty seconds of speech. Heartfelt, but it still seemed so inadequate. How could I tell him that if Jacob was the Sun, that burst of light and understand and love and life, and my mom was the stars, those points of light on the darkest of nights, unattainable yet so beautiful, if Edward was the moon, unseen for years but finally in my life shedding light on the person my mother had been, the love they had shared, the love that had made me, then he, my Charlie, was the Earth, constant, solid, always keeping me steady, always keeping me safe and fed and comforted, always making whatever crappy place we lived in home.

I could see the tears in his eyes and knew he could see the ones in mine. Instead of trying to speak he grabbed me into a bear hug that would have crushed me if I was completely human but instead made me feel like that child that had first been to La Push – scared, confused, but never alone. The world was a big, terrifying place but Charlie was home.

Charlie was my humanity. I knew he would die one day eventually and I dreaded to think what I would become without him. I did not want to be a vampire – beautiful, cold and unfeeling as marble. He was my mistakes, my imperfections, my ability to love unselfishly, the parts of me I loved the most because they made me me, not a vampire clone.

Jake was my heart, Edward was my blood. Charlie was my soul. All these different men that were a part of me. And tomorrow they would all meet, all three of them together, for the first time.

Suddenly, I was tired.

"Me, too," Charlie said when I told him. He got changed in the bedroom while I used the bathroom then we switched. By the time he turned off the bathroom light, I was already in bed, curled up on my side, in the dark.

"Night, kid," Charlie said.

"Night, Gramps."

"Love you."

"Love you, too."

That night I dreamt. I was in a meadow, this strange perfectly circular place I had never been to before. It was the meadow from my mom's diaries. The place where my dad told her he loved her. The place where their story truly began.

Everyone was there, the Cullens who I had pictures of, the pack family that made been at the meeting, Charlie.

And Mom.

She stands in the middle of them, looking around as though searching for someone. When she sees me her face breaks into a smile and I realise I was the one she had been waiting for. She runs through the crowd to me, hugging me tightly. She looks me all over as though taking in every tiny detail. The smile is still bright, but her eyes are sad. She misses me.

She pulls me into the middle of the circle with everyone lounging around us, completely content and in harmony together. Mom sits down and pulls me gently to the ground. I lay down with my head in her lap, looking up at the cloudless, jewel bright sky, as Mom strokes my hair over and over, smiling down at me.

"You're so beautiful," I tell her, lifting my hand to trace her features. I have her mouth with the same slightly too full top lip, her eyebrows, her deep brown eyes. My nose and ears are Edward's, like my hair colour, so are my cheekbones. I have a feminine version of his jaw. The curls are Charlie's and I love them. Even when they're out of control. Especially when they're out of control.

"So are you," she sees. A single tear slides down her cheek. "You grew up so beautiful, my baby."

"Momma," I say, reaching for her.

She pulls me close up another embrace but when I lay my head on her chest like a small child there's no heartbeat. I look up at her confused.

She shakes her head. "I'm not living, Nessie. I have no heartbeat."

"What are you?" I ask. This is too much, too real. I can _feel _her!

"Right now? A dream," she says, smiling softly.

"What are you the rest of the time?" I persist.

Bella laughs and it's so beautiful, so _alive_ I feel my heart break. It's not fair! Why couldn't I have just one day with her?! "I knew you would be a smart one. How could you be otherwise with a father like yours." She smiles at Edward, who is sitting right beside her. He leans into her and they kiss tenderly. They are so in love.

My head hurts trying to work it out and furious, frustrated tears well up in my eyes.

"Baby," Mom says, turning back to me, shocked to see the tears. "What's wrong, my Nessie?"

"This!" I say, getting to my feet. Everyone's looking at me but nobody seems to mind. Like they were all expecting this to happen and it infuriates me more. "All this is wrong! What is this? Why are you here?"

"I can't say," Mom says. It looks like it hurts her to say, but not nearly as much as it hurts me to hear. "I'm sorry, sweetheart, but I can't. There are rules."

"I don't give a _fuck _about rules!" I spit. "I don't care. I want to understand. I've been dreaming of you for years but it never felt this real."

"I know, honey, I know." Mom bites her lip as though there is something she wants to tell me but can't.

"Stay with me," I beg. I fall to my knees in front of her, beseeching her. "Stay with me please. I miss you. I wanted so badly to have time with you. Just one day, please don't go."

Tears streak down Mom's face. "I've wanted time with you, too. You have no idea. Oh, baby girl, its hell not being able to touch you. You can't ever see me and it hurts so badly."

"You can touch me now," I say extending my hand, palm flat.

She laughs and pressed her palm against mine. We bend our fingers to clasp our hands together.

"How long do we have?" I ask.

"Not long," Mom says. "It's almost dawn. You're nearly waking.

I can feel, detached, my body moving in the motel's small, un-comfy bed. "I don't want to go," I say, crying. "I want to stay with you."

"Shush, sweet-Ness," she says and I cry harder at the name only Charlie knows. "We'll be together again one day, I promise. We all will."

"But I want to be with you now," I argue, petulant like a tired toddler.

"No," Mom shakes her head, her loose brown hair falling over her shoulders in waves. "No, not yet. There is so much you have to do, Nessie. This won't be possible until you bring the two halves of yourself together."

"I don't understand." I had long ago accepted that I was both human and vampire.

"The Cullens and the Quileutes, Nessie. Your past and your future exist within you. You must join them in blood. You must bring them past old prejudices and unfounded hate. A change is coming, Nessie, and they must stand together. Or you will all die."

"And be with you?" I say. "Is that what you are? Dead, but here, like some kind of guardian angel."

Mom smiles brightly. "I knew you would get there in the end. Just remember that, whenever you get scared, I'm right here." She presses her hand to my heart. "I'm here, sweet-Ness, and nothing can change that."

"I love you, Momma," I say. I can feel myself waking up but there's so much more to say.

"I love you, too, sweet child of mine." Mom was Guns 'n' Roses fan, who knew.

"Why did you have me?" I blurted out. I hold more tightly to her hand, not willing to let go yet.

"Because you're my baby," she says as though it's the most obvious thing in the world. She pulls me in and rests her forehead against mine. "Because I loved your father and I wanted our love to be all it could be." She opens her eyes and looks into mine, her intensity overwhelming. "Because I would rather have had that moment with you than to have lived all my years without ever seeing your face."

"You could have had other children," I sob, "other children with someone else. They wouldn't have killed you."

"But they wouldn't have been you," Mom says gently. "And they wouldn't have been Edward's. My life always led to him. And we always led to you."

"I'm scared for tomorrow, Mom," I say.

"I know, baby, I know." She tucks my head under her chin and rocks me back and forth. "But give him a chance, Nessie. He's needs this. Like you do."

"Mom..."

...but it's too late. I'm awake. The meadow is gone. Mom is gone. Instead I've got a snoring Charlie and a crumby motel room.

I miss the light, the trees, the feel of the earth beneath me.

I miss my mom.

I hurry to the bathroom, locking the door and dragging off my clothes. I turn the shower on full blast and get in. Once I'm under and I'm soaked, I sink to the floor, my knees finally giving out. I pull my knees to my chest and wrap my arms around them.

Alone, with the scalding water cascading over me, I sob out my broken heart.

_As per suggestions, there will be more description of body language during talky bits – there's one coming up so look out._

_And yes, sorry, Bella is indeed dead and buried, as been for nearly seven years at this point. She didn't survive but that doesn't mean she won't be making another appearance. Oh, I'm a bitch – I know it! I ADORE it!_

_Review. That is all. _


	13. Chapter 13

_Alright, the people that wanted more Jacob/Nessie-ness got it. _

_The people that wanted the Cullens here YOU go._

_Now get off my back and give a fanfictioner some space! Yeesh._

_As always review._

CarlislePOV

We had returned to Forks for Edward, just as we had left seven years ago for him. I understood my son was still in pain over Bella – it was my hope that seeing her grave and saying goodbye would enable him to move on.

The years after Forks where difficult for the whole family; Edward lost any will to pretend he was okay – he lay unmoving in his room, letting the pain overwhelm him. Eventually, his power broke through the haze and our thoughts showed him that we were all concerned about him. He saw how his behaviour was hurting us and so he left. Having lost all sense of worth, he believed that we were better off without him in his anguished state. He believed he was better off alone. In the beginning he would call in every few months to tell us he was still okay. Over time, the calls became fewer and further between. We had not seen him since he left and he had not contacted us in over a year when Alice got a vision of Edward going to the Volturi wanting to die. Alice and Jasper went to find him and brought him home to us. For a while things were better – we thought he was beginning to move on – but it seemed that Edward was just trying to let us go.

We woke up one day and Edward was gone. Alice looked for him and saw him return to Forks. We caught up with him a couple of days later and the intervention began. We tried desperately to find something to give him to live for again. It quickly began clear that we were not going to succeed.

That's when we got the phone call. On the other end was a young woman who had met Edward just before he had decided to die. She said she needed to meet Edward again. We agreed and she arrived that day in the company of four men; one was older than the rest – it took a few seconds for me to realise that he was an older, scruffier, more muscular Charlie Swan. The other three were Quileutes from the La Push reservation.

The woman seemed familiar in some ways, like someone you knew, with deliberate mistakes. Over the course of the day, Renesmee told us her story. It seemed impossible and yet . . . it was true. Renesmee brought with us Bella's diaries and albums. I gave them to Edward to read, hoping it would help him understand what happened to Bella.

EPOV

I read Bella's diaries with trepidation – surely reading something she had written herself, about me, would only serve to make the hole in my chest burn worse than it had in a long time. But I had to read, I had to know Bella's thoughts, what was going through her mind as she carried, and died giving life to, our baby.

_Saturday 27__th__ September_

_Edward is gone and I just found out I'm pregnant. I have decided to keep this diary to help me understand – there's just too much to keep in my head. The first thing I have to do is tell Charlie. But how do I tell him the boyfriend that got me pregnant is a vampire and that this baby is half vampire and seems to be growing much faster than a normal baby. _

_I slept with Edward the night of my eighteen birthday. For the next week we made love often, then he was just gone. He ripped out my heart when he told me he didn't want me. I've spent the last week comatose, unable to function without him. Charlie let me stay off school – I was in no fit state to go. Then I looked at the calendar and realised my period was five days late. When Charlie went to work today I drove to Port Angeles_ _to buy a pregnancy test. Ten minutes ago, I was told by a small blue stick that I'm pregnant. _

_I have no way of getting hold of Edward, so I guess I'm doing it alone._

_Later_

_I just told Charlie. He yelled and shouted and told me he thought I was smarter than that. I cried and told him I thought so too and that I had thought Edward loved me. Charlie cried and we hugged and now Charlie's going to help me._

_29__th__ September_

_I have just told Charlie, the whole story – Edward and the Cullens being vampires, the Quileute legends Jacob told me, what the baby really is. He took it well once he regained consciousness. _

_We tried to find out what's going on with my baby – why it's growing so quickly. What I found was not exactly comforting. There's an ancient Quileute legend, one so old it is nearly forgotten: once a vampire came to La Push and dragged the Chief's daughter away. When the Quileute warriors found her she told them the vampire had not fed on her, so they took her home. It quickly became clear what had transpired in the forest that day. The girl showed signs of an accelerated pregnancy and the elders wanted to destroy her to prevent the child being born. But the Chief's love for his daughter stayed his hand and instead he ordered that she been taken away to the mountains to live, away from the tribe and anyone else. Three months after the day the girl had been taken, the midwife that had been sent with her returned. She had been travelling for a month and told the Chief what happened to his most beloved daughter. For two months the baby within her grew rapidly, until she was full-term. The baby weakened her considerably, and she had to feed on animal blood to survive. When it was time for the baby to be born, she did not go into labour, as expected. Instead the baby ripped its way out of her womb, quickly followed by his sister. The mother died. When the boy bit his sister, his venom killed her. The midwife brought the baby, which, after a month, resembled an eighteen month old, back to the tribe. When they heard the story, the baby was ordered to be destroyed. Though loathed to hurt a child, the Quileute warriors obeyed their elders and killed the child, burning his body. _

_Will that happen this time? Will my baby kill me, and then be destroyed? I don't want anyone to hurt my baby. _

_1__st__ October_

_Dear Baby,_

_Today I am two weeks and three days pregnant – I look three months. You're growing so quickly and I can feel you moving inside me. I wish Edward was here – I want him to see his child. I hope you will meet him one day, he was a wonderful man, and I love him so much. I love him even more now he's given me you._

_14__th__ October_

_Dear Baby,_

_One month pregnant and I'm halfway through my pregnancy. You're getting even bigger and I spend most of my time on the sofa reading – I'm too tired to do anything else. _

_Charlie's been amazing. He was constantly freaked early on, but now he just takes it all in his stride – it was his idea to start feeding me blood when I got too weak and it worked! I feel much better now and we're both stronger. You were absorbing all my blood but now I'm drinking the stuff we're doing okay. _

_10__th__ November _

_Dear Baby,_

_I'm near the end of my pregnancy. I have only a few days left to live and I can't regret my decision. I love your father and I love you. When I found out I was pregnant, Charlie asked me if I wanted to go through with it. I knew from the moment I learnt you were alive inside me that I would do anything to keep you safe. I would give my life for you at any moment. _

_I wanted so much to see you grow. I made a list of things I hope for you._

_I hope you and Charlie are okay without me._

_I hope Charlie learns to cook so you _will_ be okay without me._

_I hope Charlie talks to you about me; I want you to know me, even if I will never know you._

_I hope you meet your father and his family; they are wonderful people and they will love you. _

_I hope you find someone to love as much as I love your father._

_I hope that person loves you in return._

_I hope you are a good person. I know you will be._

_I hope you have children; there's no greater thing._

_I hope you get to see your children grow; it is one thing to know they will grow because of you. It must be quite something to get to see it._

_I hope you know that I love you and I will never, and have never, regretted my decision to have you. Between your life and mine, I choose yours; it's my job, I'm your mother. _

_Love you, baby. See you soon._

_13__th__ November_

_Dear Baby,_

_It's time, you're coming. See you soon Edward Charles/Renesmee Carlie Swan._

_Love you_

_Mama_

There were more entries - Bella had written every day, sometimes more than once - but these were the ones Carlisle had earmarked me to read. I don't think I can read anymore. I think Bella honestly believed I did not love her.

I'm going to burn in Hell.

But first, I'm going to get to know my daughter.

AlicePOV

She was the perfect blend of Edward and Bella – she had her mother's eyes and skin, her father's hair colour and his musical ability. She was mesmerising.

Of course, she had just fallen in love with a wolf, but you can't have everything.

We were all getting increasingly worried about Edward. A few weeks ago, Jane from the Volturi came to see us. Apparently, the Volturi had come across Edward a couple of years ago while they were cleaning up a mess in Europe. Aro wants to visit, God help us.

I have had a vision – Aro is indeed coming. He is intrigued by Edward; he wants to know what can hurt a vampire so much that they repeatedly request to be killed. I wish I had kept tags on Edward, but it felt like spying. I'm hoping that now he has found out he has a daughter he won't want to die anymore. He has more life than I have seen in him in a long while. He spends all day talking with Nessie about her mother. He tells her of their time together and Nessie tells him of her short life – she's only seven years old! Edward nearly attacked Jacob when he found out, the most active thing he has done since he decided he had to leave Bella. Thankfully, Jasper got the situation under control before a fight could break out.

We have met with the La Push pack to organise protection for the humans while the Volturi are here – it is just Aro and a few guards, they never bring everyone, so we easily outnumber them. Aro won't like that but it should be enough to dissuade them from hunting here.

JasperPOV

The last twenty four hours have been an emotional rollercoaster. Edward went from nothing to scared out of his wits. Determined, yet terrified that his daughter who reject him.

She had the same feelings. Not surprising considering he walked out on them both. I had to work harder than normal keep everyone calm – everyone was on edge.

It turns out that when they're not walking on eggshells around each other, they get on well. The only sticky moment was when Nessie asked about Bella. Edward looked like he was going to shut off – I could feel him sinking into depression again – but he didn't let her down. It was the single hardest thing he had ever done but he did it. It got easier as he lost himself in the past; he talked for hours about Bella – how they meet, how they got together, their time together. The hard part came when Nessie asked why he left, if he had really loved her. Edward didn't speak for a long time – long for us – and when he did, his voice was quiet, heartbreaking to hear.

"I did love Bella," Edward said, looking at the ivory keys of the piano they were sat at. "She was my whole world. I knew I had been waiting my whole existence for her," he turned his head, his hand still resting on the keys, to look at Nessie. I felt Nessie's last shield crumble when she saw the anguish in his eyes. "And I knew she deserved better than me. Than a lifetime of being unfulfilled living in twilight. She deserved the light and I thought I was giving her a chance for that."

Nessie's emotions were in a whirlwind. Not knowing how to deal with them she wrapped her arms around her father and held him as tight as she could, trying to comfort herself as much as him. Edward hesitated for a moment, unsure of how hard he was allowed to hug her. In the end he held her as tight as he could – Nessie practically glowed. The smile of her face was worth the worry her visit has caused.

She belongs here, just as Bella had. There was a gap in the family, had been since we left Bella. But her daughter did not fill that space, she made her own – I was worried that if he lost Nessie, Edward would not survive. He had kept going to see Bella had a full life, to know one day that he had made the right choice by her, but he would not have that hope with Nessie. If he lost his child...how do humans survive that?

Please, God, let this be even to get him away from the edge.

EmmettPOV

She was so much like Bells, more graceful so less fun, but everything that mattered – her personality, her strength and determination in regards to the safety of those she considered family. She loves Charlie more than anything – probably good for him seeing how much he's lost – but I'm hoping she enough like Bella to love Edward a little too.

AlicePOV

The Volturi are coming. We're not ready for this.

_I'm so sorry it took me so long to update. I was going to do it earlier but my computer CRASHED ULTIMATELY. As in had to be taken back to FACTORY SETTINGS! So I was freaking out for two weeks as to whether I would lose everything I had written but not uploaded – we're talking about fifty chapters for various fictions plus all my ideas for future fictions. So, as you can imagine, I was on a severe, constant freak out which my poor, amazing friend mellowenglishgal got the brunt of because she made the mistake of answer her phone. I'm sorry and I love you!_

_So, yes, sorry I haven't updated but it was literally impossible._

_But here you go. _

_Please review. Make me remember why this is worth the ulcers._


	14. Chapter 14

_Has it been a month? My my!_

_Not to trip you guys up or anything but the writing has changed from past tense to present. It was not a conscious decision but then I didn't want to change it because I felt like it got a sense of urgency across better. Feel free to disagree...when you review._

NessiePOV

They're coming, the Volturi are coming. The pack has agreed to work with the Cullens to provide protection. Nine wolves, seven vampires, me and Charlie. I don't know what they want, but I hope we're enough to stop them getting it.

JanePOV

We near the end of our journey and the Cullens are near. Their pain will make my ability look like a parlour trick, but I'm hoping to get to use it anyway – Aro promised.

Aro wants to give them a month. We let the word spread that we are going to pay them a little house call. Let them gather as many little helpers as possible – the more the merrier and the less to oppose us later.

CarlislePOV

We are sending out for help. We knew this day would come – ours is the largest coven outside of the Volturi. They have come to eliminate the competition.

I wonder what excuse they will use, to justify the slaughter of so many.

RosaliePOV

We're heading out – Tanya, Irina, Kate, Carmen and Eleazar have been called and are running down as we speak. We're going to find some old friends – Stefan and Vladimir; Maggie, Siobhan and Liam; Garrett, Peter and Charlotte. That's thirteen more. Altogether, that's twenty vampires and...guests.

Bella's daughter is a dream, but I don't think she likes me very much. I would do anything do have a daughter and the closest thing I have, a niece, doesn't like being in the same room as me.

I try not to think about how much it hurts.

JacobPOV

Working with vampires? The things you do for the one you imprint on.

Nessie's worried – she wants Charlie out of here before the Volturi comes. She doesn't want him caught up in middle of a supernatural throw down. I don't either; Charlie's not strong enough to fight vampires. The problem is he's tough enough, determined enough and loves Nessie too much to let her in this fight without him.

Oh, god, this fight. Nessie. I can't let this happen. May be I could get her to agreed to protect Charlie and the others in La Push.

I tried. Nessie glared at me until I thought I should be bursting into flame. Then she stalked out saying she had somewhere to be. That was five hours ago and she hasn't called me. I beginning to lose my mind – no one knows where she is.

CharliePOV

I have a weird feeling I can't shake. I feel like I'm about to lose ... I don't know who. It might just be a vibe I'm getting from everyone else, but I don't think so. There's a phrase my mother used to tell me for feeling like this, but I can't remember it now.

I'm the only one here who can't do anything. It's different for the council – this is their heritage, just another link in the chain. This is everything to me, _Nessie _is everything to me.

Jacob came over to ask if I would have dinner with Billy and Sue. Since my absent and Harry's death, they've been spending a lot more time together. I don't know if I should go. What do I say? 'Thanks for not agreeing to kill my kid this time around'? That'll go down well.

Nessie and I moved out of the motel. We're in this random place Esme Cullen found for us, halfway between La Push and the Cullens' place. They had it bought and paid for before we could make up our minds – the pushy hospitality thing is starting to get to me. What's with all the gift giving? Does everyone around here think they can buy our acceptance?

Just occasionally I would like to be able to shoot someone I know and have it _hurt._

CarlislePOV

We have one week until they get here. All the nomads have arrived as have the Denali Coven. It is time for them to meet Nessie.

She's nervous, pacing up and down from Charlie on one side of the kitchen to Edward on the other. Jacob stands in the middle, watching her, touching her arm as she passes him.

"They're waiting for you, Nessie," I say. She stops, her thumb on her lip – she's been chewing the nail – her eyes wide with fear of the unknown. She looks so young, so like Bella.

She straightens her shoulders and nods. The family gathers around her; Jacob takes her hand, Edward walks at her other side, Charlie slightly behind her not willing to have someone between him and his granddaughter. Rosalie, Alice and Esme line up to walk behind them. Jasper stands in front to the left, Emmett on the right, leaving a space for me in the middle to take point. Together we walk into the living room of our house – the only place big enough for such a gathering.

When we get there, the wolves are lined up, in human form thankfully, by the large glass window. All their arms are folded and their faces are carefully expressionless. They are staring coldly at the vampires gathered on the other side of the room. We step into No Man's Land and I step forward to welcome our guests.

"Welcome, friends. A situation has arisen, one which will have ramifications for us all."

"Friends?!" Irina demands. "They killed Laurent!"

"Laurent was hunting in La Push. We were within our rights according to our treaty and fulfilling our role as Protectors," Sam's voice is low but carries great authority. The visiting vampires hear it well and Irina lunges into a crouch with a growl. Leah responds in kind and the situation goes from difficult to dangerous in a heartbeat.

Calm fills me and, I could tell, everyone else. I look to Jasper, smiling my thanks. Jasper looks at me in his peripherals, unwilling to take his eyes of the invited invaders, and nods.

"We had bigger problems than past feuds," I say. "The Volturi is coming; Alice says they will be here in a week. We believe they have come to destroy us – we are a threat to them."

"It's the Volturi's way of remaining the top dogs," Edward says, not leaving his daughter's side.

Garrett smiles – he's like a Spartan, always looking for the next battle, the next challenge. "What do we have to do?"

"Nothing," I say quickly. "We just want to give them pause for thought."

"Because that will work," Tanya says – even after all this time she is wary of the Volturi. She knows what they do to those they see as rule breakers.

"Why not?" Carmen asks. "What have the Cullens done?"

"What have any of the others done?" Eleazar replies. "I remember – oh, god, what have I done." My old friend stares unseeing, horror on his face.

"What?" Carmen asks. Everyone turns to Edward.

"Eleazar is remembering something. Whenever the guard was sent against a group of us, whenever they committed an unpardonable crime, Aro would arrive. He would offer a pardon to one, the opportunity to live among them as a member of the guard."

"So?" Nessie asks.

"So, it was always someone with extra abilities, someone gifted, unique."

"So which one of us do they want?" Alice asks. An interesting question, given the amount of unusual vampires in the room.

"How do they know what powers any of us have?" Rosalie asks.

"It would have gotten through the community by now," Jasper says.

"Are you kidding me?" Edward exclaimed in a rough growl.

"Edward? What is it?" Esme asks, breaking rank to lay her hand on Edward's arm. He was glaring at Irina.

"Irina, what have you done!" he half-yells, his voice strangled.

"I'm sorry! I didn't know it would come to this!" she cries.

"What? What has she done?" Jacob shoots forward, crouching in front of Nessie, ready to lunge at Irina, his teeth bared.

"She met with Victoria, soon after Laurent died. Bella was already dead so there was no one for her to hurt. So, to punish them, she told Victoria all about our powers – and _she_ told the Volturi," Edward explains.

A deadly silence fills the room. Then the growls start. The wolves, our family. Out of the corner of my eye I see Charlie pull a gun from the waistband of his trousers. Tanya drags Irina behind her to protect her from the eighteen beings who now want to rip her apart.

"How could you?" Esme cries, her eyes red-rimmed. "Our family, Irina! How could Laurent mean more to you than us?"

I wrap my arms around her – it aches to see her in pain. She leans into me, her head buried in my chest.

"You bitch!" Nessie yells. She vaults over Jacob, who manages to grab her around the waist before she can get to Irina. "I'll kill you!" she promises, writhing in Jacob's arms, still trying to get to the vampire cowering behind her sister.

"I'm sorry," Irina says, her eyes as red as Esme's.

"Save it," Nessie spits venomously. She tears herself out of Jacob's arms and takes off out of the large window. Jacob and Edward take after her, calling her name.

"Well, that went better than I expected," Emmett says, smiling all around. Can nothing dampen that boy's spirits?

"Carlisle?" Tanya asks, tentatively. "May we stay? We would like to make amends, and stand with you if we may." She nudges Irina out from behind and her sister nods fervently.

I want to make at least Irina leave – her very presence will be difficult for Nessie and the others to handle – but we need everyone. "We welcome your help, Tanya." I address the room, "my family must confer together, if you will excuse us." Tanya and the Denali clan come to follow us, but I stop them. "Please, Tanya, we need to talk to Nessie. I must ask you to remain here." I nod to Sam and together our family and the wolves walk out of the room – I can hear the remaining vampires mutter about this. Looking back, the Denali clan look like they have just been hit in the faces. Irina hisses about being replaced by a bunch of mongrels. In response, Jasper says, without turning around, "they're not the ones who betrayed us." That shuts them up.

Walking out of the house, we see the three missing members of our family come out of the woods. Nessie is in the middle, her arms wrapped around herself. Edward and Jacob are on either side of her with their arms around her. We hurry up when we see the tears streaking down Nessie's face.

"Why are they coming here?" Nessie asks thickly as soon as we're close enough for conversation.

"Who knows, we'll just have to wait for the reason they give us," Alice says.

"Don't worry, Ness, we'll decimate them after that!" Emmett says, thumping her, lightly, on the arm. She gives a small laugh, more like a choke. I reach for her and Edward and Jacob release her so I can embrace my granddaughter.

"Shh, dear one," I say, wrapping my arms around her tightly and resting my cheek on the top of her head. "I promise we will get through this."

"How many of us?" she mumbles into my chest.

I don't answer. I can't.

_Hey, guys! So, new thing – ADVERTISING STORIES! This chapter's advertising: Dallas Rose by mellowenglishgal You should read it, she's been emailing me about it for weeks. And as a nice little thank you as well because this ad is the only reason I'm updating – I'm in the middle of an essay flurry right now, sorry!_

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	15. Chapter 15

_Please read A.N. at the bottom._

_That is all. Please read and review._

JanePOV

Today's the day. Victoria told us for their abilities and her own were recognised – she is here today, one of us.

Aro wants us to bring at least Alice and Edward – Chelsea will join them to us and we will be omniscient.

AlicePOV

Today's the day. Victoria is one of them – her ability to evade capture is a useful skill.

We need to keep them from knowing the truth about Nessie – if Aro knows what she is ... I can't bear to think of what he would do to gain such a prize.

AroPOV

I tire of this game. This coven has grown. Its lifestyle is unnatural. They must be dealt with.

CharliePOV

I remember the phrase – it felt like someone was walking over my grave.

NessiePOV

Today's the day. Charlie won't leave. The rest of us can't. How many deaths will I be responsible for this time around?

SamPOV

The vampires don't know about us, don't know the treaty has transformed into an alliance. Emily is at home, freaking out. It can't be good for the baby.

LeahPOV

I'm here, about to wolf out again. Three years of not transforming down the drain. At least I actually look my age this time around – it's not the same for a girl as the guys, looking twenty-six when you're still a teenager.

It's been a bit strange to be honest, being around Nessie. I thought I would hate the little freak, but it's actually kind of nice to be able to talk to someone about being the only whatever – she gets what it's like being a freak amongst the weirdoes.

Emily told me today that she and Sam are having a baby. It didn't hurt as much as I thought it would, probably because I had never got to the point with Sam. Knowing that she had been having sex with him hurt like hell, watching them get married was a bitch, too – having been with Sam for two years I had always seen myself as the one in white.

But this time? Sure, there was the old sting of what might have been, but that's the point. It was what _might _have been, not what _was_. I think I let go of the past the moment Emily told me about her pregnancy.

Edward's looking at me, a sad kind of smile on his face – he won't ever let go of the past, will he? He shakes his head, no, he won't ever let go of Bella. Probably difficult to forget someone when you spend all your time looking at the child you have with them. Edwards nods, and then looks over to where Nessie is curled up with Jacob on the sofa. Time's limited so right now everyone's spending what could be their last chance with their other half.

Me? I have no other half, so I get to spend time running border checks with Seth, Embry and Collin – we non-Imprinters always get the short end of the stick.

Around three we caught a whiff of some unfamiliar vampires. We streaked back to the house like lightning, howling the whole way. At the edge of the wood, we changed back to human form and pulled on our clothes. We tore across their lawn/field and ran into the house, yelling our heads off.

"The British are coming! The British are coming!" Seth yells. Garrett comes around the corner grinning – he and Seth had hit it off right away.

"They're Italian, dude," Collin says.

"Fine – the Italian creepy-ass people collectors are coming!" Seth yells. Turning to Collin, he says, "you see it just doesn't have the same ring to it."

Everyone gathers in the living room. "Right, everyone," Carlisle says, "this is it. Let's just look after each other."

Sam speaks us, talking to everyone, not just the pack. "Carlisle's right. We will be in wolfen form, but Edward will be able to read our minds – he'll pass along anything we want you to know." We all agreed and went to congregate in the field behind the house.

CarlislePOV

Aro is the only Volturi leader here today – he has brought most of the guard with him. I recognise Chelsea, Demetri, Felix, Heidi, Jane and Renata; the rest are more transient, arriving after my time there.

"Welcome, Aro. It is a pleasure to see you again," I say, trying to keep thing civil.

"Carlisle, as always you are gracious. And what a group you have brought to welcome us," Aro says smoothly, opening his arms as though welcoming the sight. "Some might see this as a challenge. However, given our friendship, I will give you the benefit of the doubt."

"We're just here to celebrate Carlisle's birthday," Emmett says, cockiness radiating out of him. He's in the front line, arms folded, smirk firmly in place, making it obvious that he's sizing them all up.

"Ah, I see," Aro says, smiling. Next to me, Nessie shivers. I want to touch her hand to reassure her, but even that small gesture will draw unwanted attention to her. "See, friends," he turns to speak to those he had brought with him. "I knew there was a reason for so many to be meeting." He turns back to me and gives a small, spine-tingling laugh, "some thought you were raising an army, Carlisle. But I knew you would not be so disloyal."

"Disloyal to who?" Garrett says, stepping up from where he stands next to Kate. "To you? Are you his king, Aro? Are we your subjects?"

"No, dear friend, no. I meant to all vampire kind. A gathering of this magnitude cannot help but draw attention of the humans, dull-sensed as they are."

AroPOV

This Garrett fellow is beginning to piss me off.

EdwardPOV

Charlie shifts next to me at Aro's words, understandably both a little pissed off and a lot afraid though he tries to hide it for Nessie.

I hear my name in Aro's thoughts and snap to look at him. "Ah, Edward," he speaks, focusing his filmy red stare on me. "It is good to finally meet you. I am under the impression that you were coming to ...visit us a couple of times over the last few years. Unfortunately, you always seem diverted at the last minute."

"Unfortunately," I manage to say through a tight jaw. Is Aro honestly standing in front of Carlisle saying it is a shame I had not asked him to kill me again? I hear Carlisle's thoughts – he's thinking along the same lines and he, too, is afraid; what is Aro getting at?

"Please, come. Shake my hand, Edward. I meant no insult," Aro says, extending his hand. So, that's his game. Offer the hand of friendship so that he can read my mind – and therefore know the thoughts of every person in the place.

He'll find out about Nessie. I can't touch him, no one can. "No insult was taken, Aro," I say carefully, not moving. The outstretched hand shakes slightly – Aro is angry – and a murmur runs through the guard; outspoken defiance is not something they often see.

"You will not shake my hand?" Aro asks, his voice low and dangerous. Our people shift in response, tensing for the fight we know is coming. Emmett's smirk grows into a full-blown grin and he unfolds his arms in anticipation. Next to him Rose flashes him a look – Jasper frowns as their feelings become decidedly non-conflict related. Their thoughts aren't helpful at this point. I forgot how hot Rose finds Emmett when he's fighting – it's her biggest aphrodisiac.

"Of course, Aro, Edward meant no offense," Nessie speaks confidently and steps forward. She shakes Aro's hand with her gloved one. "He is merely upset over a recent addition to your ... family." Here Nessie graces Victoria with a brief, icy look before dismissing her and looking back at Aro. Victoria's eyes narrow as she recognises Nessie's brown eyes, identical to Bella's. She acts with poise and grace. Elegant, with a welcoming smile. She is so much like her mother – when her mother wasn't tripping over her own feet.

"And you are?"

"A friend of the family," Nessie says inclining her head, "wondering what honour brings you to visit us."

With one simple statement, Nessie has put us in control and them on the back foot – the Volturi never speak directly. Aro is not sure how to act. He did not get a read off of Nessie and he can't – it would look odd to ask her to remove her gloves. He is trapped by the rules of hospitality.

"It has been a long time since we last met, Carlisle and I. And with Edward's almost visits, I thought we should come to you." Aro does not like Nessie – she's smarter than him, and fearless. He wants to hurt her.

"Nessie, come back," I can't stop my voice breaking as I speak.

"Yes, Nessie, return and Aro and his...family can come inside to talk," Carlisle says. I look at him gratefully for covering my slip – not that anyone will forget it.

We back away slowly, none of us wanting to turn our back on the Volturi. The wolves close in, circling around us to create a barrier between us and the Volturi. Jacob is between Nessie and Aro – she hates it, finding it near impossible not to at least stand beside him. She reaches out to touch the tip of his tail as it whips past her – no one sees it.

"Your guard dogs are impressive, Carlisle," Aro comments. His words are greeted with deep growls and snarls from the horse-sized wolves.

"They are our friends, Aro," Carlisle says, as coldly as he as ever spoken. "Please treat them as such."

"Naturally, naturally," Aro says waving his hand. "But how do you live with the smell."

"With the same way they deal with ours. With tolerance." Carlisle steps back to allow Aro to precede him through. The Volturi leader steps into the confined space.

That's when the world ends.

CarlislePOV

Aro passes Charlie and sniffs. "A human!" he cries, staring wide-eyed before rounding on me in a blur. "Carlisle, what is the meaning of this?"

"Charlie is family," I say, quietly panicking under my calm facade. It seems only Edward and Esme can tell – Esme touches my hand, reassuring me.

Edward darts in front of Charlie to protect him. The pack drops back to cover Charlie. Nessie stands next to him, slightly in front; I see her pull of her gloves as she moves.

"He is human!" Aro cries astounded.

Felix reaches for Charlie. Jasper launches himself at Felix and, with the sound of crashing rocks, they tumble to the ground. Suddenly, everyone is fighting everyone else. Nessie pushes Charlie towards me and Esme, giving us something else to do, knowing we hate to fight. We grab Charlie and set about protecting him, herding him to a corner, then facing out towards the room.

"NO!" Edward's terrified yell cuts through every other sound. People stop dead, looking at Edward, who is looking towards Nessie and Aro. Aro had his hand wrapped around Nessie's throat, both choking her and listening to every thought she has ever had. Nessie can't breathe, choking and spluttering, smacking Aro's arms, but she's not strong enough to make him let go – he is an Ancient, and she is a hybrid.

Edward launches himself at Aro but Renata flings him backwards with her power. He crashes into the piano reducing it to splinters. Nessie changes tack, remembering who she is. She rips off her gloves and clasps her bare hands to the hands on her neck and suddenly Aro is on the floor screaming. Renata throws herself at Nessie but she ducks the vampire's arms and whips up to lay her hands on Renata's face.

Everyone in the room is stunned as Renata, too, begins to scream – no one has ever managed to break through her shield before. Nessie pants and stumbles away from the pair who are shaking on the floor. Renata tries to help Aro up but he pushes her away, disappointed in her.

Nessie falls into Edward who catches her – he had rolled straight to his feet without even looking at his piano, his most prized possession. "Nessie, sweetheart! Baby girl, talk to me!" Edward's cradling Nessie in his arms, shaking her when she doesn't respond. "Come on, Nessie!" Jacob rushes to their side, nudging her face with his nose to get her to come around – the poor girl fainted as soon as she hit her father's arms.

"Put your daughter down, Edward," Aro says. He's finally got to his feet, more shaken emotionally than physically.

Edward tenses – his back is to Aro. He curls over Nessie who is slowly waking up. His eyes are red-rimmed, his face agonised. Jacob whines next to him. "Its okay, Jake, she'll be okay." He says it frantically, trying to believe it himself.

EdwardPOV

He knows. Goddamn it, he knows everything. Nessie is the centre of it all; by touching her he knows who she is, what she is, who the wolves are.

I curl over her, desperately trying to protect her while I can. I won't be able to protect her when she's conscious – just like Bella she'll be putting herself on the front line for everyone else, even if she is the most delicate in the room.

"Dad?" Nessie asks weakly, her eyes fluttering open.

"I'm here, baby girl. Jacob's here, too." Jacob nudges her cheek with his nose again and she reaches limply over to touch him, reassure him that she's okay.

It really took it out of her. She can put thoughts into other people's heads. Holding onto Aro, then Renata, she thought of her single most painful memory to cause them anguish – she had thought of Bella's final moment: reaching for her mother as Bella reached for her, Charlie carrying her away to her crib. Bella's dying moment haunts me, her hand falling, the light leaving her eyes. She closes them for the last time and a look of peace crosses her face. That always hurt Nessie more than anything – that Bella had to die to find serenity.

If I could cry the tears would be streaming down my face. I hold my daughter closer – she can't stop thinking about her mother. "It's not true, Nessie, it's not true. You're mother did not have to die to find peace – she found it the moment she looked at _you._" Nessie curls up into the foetal position in my arms, her sobs racking her body. Jacob wants to turn back into his human form to hold her, but it's not a good idea with an irate Aro around. Charlie is on the other side of the room, fighting to get past Carlisle and Esme to get to Nessie but they won't let him.

"Put her down, Edward," Aro says again.

"Fuck you, Aro," Rosalie hisses, crouching next to us, teeth bared.

"I'll destroy you for this," Aro says.

"You were going to destroy us anyway," Jasper says, coming to a crouch by Rosalie's side.

Most people are still outside – the Volturi and the family. With me, Esme, Charlie, Carlisle, Jasper, Rosalie, Nessie, Jacob, Aro and Renata inside, most of the Volturi and half of us are looking on through the glass wall.

The wolves have the Volturi rounded up, circling them. Felix keeps trying to break through, resulting in Leah snapping and snarling at him, forcing him to back up again. The rest of our vampires are in a stationary circle around the wolves.

Slowly, I get Nessie to her feet. She puts an arm over Jacob's front haunches and he props her up while I hold her. Jasper and Rosalie straighten up and Esme puts her arm through the crook of Charlie's elbow. With Carlisle, they walk out behind Aro and Renata, keeping a careful distance. We follow close behind. Charlie reaches behind him and I let go of Nessie's hand, keeping my arm around her waist, so that she can hold Charlie's hand. They're scared to death. We all are.

CharliePOV

Something's going to happen. Something terrible. Something that will destroy us. We can't avoid it, I know it.

Creepy leader and his shadow walk into the huge garden. He's clearly pissed to see that our people have got his lot surrounded.

One of the wolves – the black, nearly the largest but only slightly outdone by Jacob's bulk – looks over at Edward, who nods. The wolves walk another circle then smoothly move in a line out of the gap between Peter and Charlotte.

Our vampires – this is truly getting a little too weird even for me – also broke away and they all reconvened in a group around us.

Aro and his bodyguard(?) joined their lot. "Carlisle," the leader said. "We must talk about these developments."

"There is nothing to discuss," Edward said, his arm tightening around Nessie. "You're not going to harm any of the wolves, or Charlie."

"Charlie is a human who knows the secret – he must be dealt with!" Aro glares at all of us in turn. I can't help but feel afraid.

"He gave up everything to raise Nessie in safety and secrecy – do you honestly see him as a threat to us? Who would he tell?" Edward demanded.

"The rules are clear!"

"Fuck your rules – this is an unprecedented situation!" Nessie argued. She sounds tough but I can see the toll using her power took on her – she's shaking as she stands. Or maybe it's the thought that took it out of her. There's only one thing that caused Nessie enough pain to make Aro scream like that. She thought of Bella.

"Give us the human and the Children of the Moon will not be harmed," Aro bargained.

"They are not Children of the Moon – they're shape shifters, not werewolves. They are not our enemies and we will not treat them as such," Carlisle said, moving to take point.

"Carlisle, we are trying to give you a way out," Aro said. "Please take it."

Edward decides everyone deserves to know what Aro is thinking. "Actually, you are terrified because you know you can't win – this is too even a fight."

"Quiet, boy!" Aro snarls – he is seriously losing his cool. Even a human with no supernatural abilities can see that.

"You can't command me, Aro! I won't bow to you!" Edward yells.

"What is wrong with you people?!" Aro demands, throwing up his hands. "He," leader-guy points to me, "is our food. They," he sweeps his hand to encompass all the wolves, "are our enemies. You would give up your lives for them?"

"Yes," Edward says coldly, squaring up to Aro. I've changed my mind – he's not a bad kid. Not really a kid either since he's three times my age. Really don't want to think about that actually, given he's the father of my grandchild and the lover of my daughter.

"You stubborn fool," Aro hisses, making a shiver run down my spine. "You will die for nothing!"

"I may die, but it will be for something beyond your comprehension," Edward snarls.

"And what is that, may I ask?" enquires Aro sweetly, some of his Prozac-induced enthusiasm coming back.

"Pure love."

Aro smiles. "Friends," he says, raising his arms and turning in a circle to look at his followers before looking at us again. "Dear Edward _loves._ Isn't it wonderful?" He smiles brightly and some of the followers laugh.

"I feel sorry for you, Aro," Edward says, looking at the vampire elder. "You mock what you will never understand. Because you _can't _understand it. You will never know what it means to love someone so much you would give your life for them. You will never understand what it means to love someone so much that them just _being there _makes everything better somehow."

"I love my wife, Edward," Aro says, his face hard and cold.

"But do you love her more than anything?" Edward asks.

Aro does not answer. He can't.

"All you had to do was follow the rules, Carlisle, just follow the rules," Aro says, as though heartbroken.

"Maybe my rules are different to yours, Aro," Carlisle says sadly.

"Then we have no choice," Aro says.

"Neither do we," says Carlisle.

"VOLTURI!" Aro shouts. "Leave none alive!"

Chaos reigns. Everyone is fighting someone else. The wolves and our vampires clash with Aro's guard. Those with extract powers used them – I think Jasper must have made a few feel sleepy or something because they moved slower than the rest, disorientated. Until Emmett ripped their heads off. It's a pity that kid died before he could play for the NFL – he could have been one of the greats.

"Charlie!" It is Carlisle. For a violence-loathing vampiric pacifist, the guy sure could hold his own. As I watch he got one vampire with a palm to the chest, throwing him back over fifty feet. The tree he slammed into broke in half, the top half landing on top of him. I would say ouch but it probably didn't hurt him. "Get in the house – Emmett and Esme will protect you!"

It was strange to see Esme fighting. She too was a pacifist, supposedly, and always looked so elegant. Right how some big vamp had her by the throat. Until she kicked him in the balls and rammed her hand under his ribs, ripping them out. She's like Xena in a twin set.

At Carlisle's words Emmett and Esme make a beeline for me. But something makes Emmett's eyes widen and him move faster towards me, yelling. Turning around, I see Aro right behind me.

There is a burning hot pain in my chest, and I feel my clothes get damp. Looking down, I se Aro's hand protruding from my chest. It is blood making my shirt damp. My blood.

Aro pulls his hand away. For a moment, I see my own heart, bloody and whole, in his hand.

Then it all goes blank.

_DON'T KILL ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *peeks out from behind sofa* _

_At least this chapter was longer...right?_

_Please review. I'm sorry! You have no idea how tough it was to write!_


	16. Chapter 16

_I'M SORRY!!!!!!!!!!_

_As hard as it was to read, multiply that by a thousand. Yeah, that was me writing it. As for the one who has the gun to my head, can I finish the story before you pull the trigger? I promise I'll stand still after what I did to Charlie. But...it had to happen. You don't know why but I do AND I'M SORRY!_

EsmePOV

Charlie is dead. As soon as he was, Aro pulled his soldiers away. He got what he came for apparently.

Nessie is inconsolable. She ran to Charlie's side, gathering up his body in her arms but he was already gone. Sometimes, it's not like the movies. Sometimes, we don't get to say goodbye. They're just gone, and there's nothing we can do.

She cried, begging him to come back but he couldn't. She won't let any of us near him, or comfort her, not even Jacob. Nothing can help this child now. Aro has broken something in her. I fear she will never be the same.

NessiePOV

It hurts. It hurts so much I'm numb. People keep trying to take Charlie from me, to wash the blood off me but I can't. I can't let him go. Not now, not ever.

I wonder why Aro chose Charlie – he was only human. But then I know. Charlie was the weak link, my strongest shield. The loss of him would incite me to go after Aro, in Volterra, where he is the stronger. I will not be stopped, and my family will not let me go alone.

I am in Hell and soon, Aro will be my companion. My plaything.

EdwardPOV

Nessie's thoughts scare me. She is consumed by thoughts of killing the Volturi – she knows she will have to kill them all to get to Aro. It doesn't scare her. She's in too much pain to care. She's coming for Aro. She'll bring the Apocalypse if that's what it takes to avenge her grandfather.

JasperPOV

Somehow, Nessie is blocking me. Her pain is all-consuming and my power will not work on her. I have had to leave the house, go into the mountains. I am ashamed at myself but I cannot take her grief. I am not as strong as Edward. I am not her father. My love for her is not enough to make me able to withstand this agony. It is as bad as the pain Edward felt when he first left Bella, when he first learnt of her death.

But Nessie is focused. She is strong and she is stubborn. She will harness this pain, and used it to destroy Aro. For a moment I pity him then I remember the last feeling Charlie Swan ever had, even as he died. Fear, pain...at the thought of losing his grandchild.

This, all of this is my fault. We left because I attacked Bella on her birthday. Because I couldn't control the thirst.

I'm sorry, Edward. I have cost you everything.

EmmettPOV

That's enough. She's been holding his body for two days without moving. She may hate me, but I've got to do something.

CarlislePOV

Emmett just separated Charlie from Nessie. She screamed and yelled and fought, calling him every bad name she knew, but in the end, as he held her and Rosalie gently carried Charlie's body to rest on the dining room table, she broke. She tried to pummel Emmett but he was too strong. She began to cry, holding on to Emmett and weeping. He just held until she stopped.

We cleaned up Charlie...Charlie's body. A clean shirt hid the hole in his chest.

If one of us had moved faster, if Nessie had let us get to him, would we have been able to change him into one of us? It is unfair to think if it. It probably would not have worked anyway. Charlie probably would not have thanked us.

I'm supposed to save lives, not watch them as they slip away. I got used to it, at the hospital. I remember every face, but I didn't know the person behind it. I didn't know that they were an amazing person. I didn't look up to them, admire them as the father they were. The world is colder without Charlie. We are a little more broken than before. Nessie is lost. There is one less person in the world that remembers Bella. One less person to share a story about her.

Edward has just told me what Nessie is thinking. I cannot blame her for wanting revenge, but I am hoping to be able to talk her out of it. I won't be able to – she's as single minded as her father.

EmbryPOV

We're gearing up for war. You can feel it. All the imprinters are spending as much time with their loves as they can. Sam won't let them to Italy go without all of the wolves – Charlie, though he walked away from them, was considered part of the tribe – since this is their war now, too. Emily doesn't know if he will live to see the birth of their child.

SethPOV

Shit. We're about to wage war on the leech royalty and my sister just imprinted. Leah met Aidan in Port Angeles. At a bookshop. What the hell was my sister doing at a bookshop?

This is not good. I'm not happy. My happiness is taking a serious knock.

Please God, don't let my sister get pregnant – we really need her in this fight.

NessiePOV

Everyone thinks it's a given that we are going to war. I never meant this to happen. I only want Charlie back.

Leah's imprinted. She came over yesterday to tell me all about this guy, Aidan. He sounds nice. Feisty Leah ended up with an elementary school teacher. An English teacher. He likes kids. He enjoys mocha lattes. He has amazing stamina. I stopped her at that point.

Then I went to spend some time with Jacob. We went to the garage and I sat on the hood on the car next to him as he worked on a 1956 Impala. He doesn't wear a shirt when he works. It's a bonus.

He doesn't wear anything during sex. That's really great.

It's the only time I feel anything other than pain anymore. The desk isn't that comfortable but hey, none of the cars belong to us – I think that may be illegal.

JacobPOV

Nessie is not okay. I didn't expect her to be but I thought we would have more of a relationship than me acting as stud when she got tired of freezing everyone out.

I'm going to talk to Edward – damn her privacy I need to know what's in her head. She took off three days ago and no one has heard from her since. She's not picking up her phone. I'm going out of my frigging mind here.

NessiePOV

They're perfect. They just need one more thing.

Then they'll be deadly.

JasperPOV

Edward called me to say Nessie's gone missing so I came back.

I've been back for an hour. My head hurts. Everyone's emotions are in turmoil. I can get everyone calm, but then someone new walks in with a new set of problems.

Nessie's home and she's feeling ... dangerously even. Calm without my help. She walks in to the kitchen of her and Charlie's house, the place where we meet so everyone's on an neutral territory and everyone sat here – Seth, me, Jared, Sam and Carlisle – stares at her as she walks in. She has a long, thin bag on her back, holding the strap where it crosses her chest.

"Where have you been?" Carlisle asks. Jacob barrels into the kitchen barely a second after Nessie and demands the same thing. Carlisle's a bit put out that Jacob's shouting at his granddaughter, but wants the same answer.

"Getting stocked up," says Nessie, with a dangerous smile. She takes the bag off her back and lies on the table; it turns out to look more like a rolled up piece of fabric than a bag. Undoing the three buckles, she grabs one end and flicks the cloth open. In the middle, in two pockets the length of the cloth, are two samurai blades. She slides them out, laying them on the cloth, looking at them with respect and awe. "I had them made. If the Volturi want to start a fight, they better be prepared not to walk away." She grabs a scabbard and hilt and slides the blade out. The blade reflects the light, blinding Seth; it looks wicked sharp.

I really want a go, but I don't think she'll let me. Not fair, really, since she has two.

"Er, Nessie?" Jacob approaches the situation with caution, the best way really, unless you want to see your worst nightmare – Nessie isn't really picky about when she uses her gift with the people she knows. "Hon, I know you want to be in this fight, but I was thinking -" Jacob didn't get any further before the blade was unsheathed and pointing at his throat. The blades were shorter than normal samurai swords which made them ideal for using as a pair. "-that it might not be the best idea, but now I see I was wrong."

Nessie sheathed the blade again and checks the other one. She pulls this one out a mere inch or two to check the edge of the blade. Satisfied, Nessie re-sheaths the blade with a smart click of the hilt meeting the scabbard. Putting them back in their pockets and rolling the material up, she slings the strap over her shoulder and goes upstairs.

"Who's going to talk to her?" Seth asked.

"I vote Jasper," Jared says. "He's the one that can affect your mood."

"I vote we wait for Edward," I say. "He's her father and he'll know when to duck."

"I vote Jacob – he's the imprint. He's the one she won't hurt," Carlisle chips in.

"Don't bet on that," Jacob says darkly, folding his arms and leaning against the wall. But still, over all the other turmoil in the room, I could feel his need to go to her sharper than anything.

"Why don't we leave her be until she wants to be bothered?" Seth suggests.

Everyone in the room feels that is the dumbest thing we could do – she could disappear again at any time – but no one says it. They don't have to.

"Or not then." Seth shuts up.

Jacob went to see her. He came back bleeding. We decided Seth's idea was not so stupid after all. So now we're all back in the kitchen like a bunch of lemons, unsure of what to do.

_Do you maybe see why Charlie had to die now? Or should I go hide some more?_

_Very quick update because you reviewed so quickly – thank kmddeprez1122, Queen of tears, SagaObsessed, .19, russianlover17 and dazzleglo._


	17. Chapter 17

EdwardPOV

Carlisle bought a plane. I read the manual. We're leaving for Volterra at the end of the week. Four days, that is it. That is as long as we may have to live.

We're all still here. Surprisingly, when it became clear to the visitors that war was brewing they did not leave. They spread out, letting others know the Revolution was nigh. We have been invaded by the southern covens who want revenge for the wars in the south. Not a coven was left untouched, most were almost decimated. The Volturi made a lot of enemies. Now we have a lot of allies.

Alistair even made it. Apparently he feels we have enough of an army to launch a successful campaign. He hates authority of any kind.

JacobPOV

I don't like him. I don't like him one bit. I may bite him.

NessiePOV

Jacob is feeling insecure – something I never thought I was going to see. Some of the Cullens' random friends from around the world included a guy and a woman from the rainforest. His name is Nahuel. He's a hybrid like me – so are his sisters who also turned up.

We spent a lot of time together, talking things over. I found someone who understands exactly how I'm feeling. Jacob doesn't like Nahuel. Okay, so he stills a little close and he kind of looks at me like he's interested but, Christ, can't Jake trust me? I want to talk to the guy not fuck him!

I love Jacob. End of. I haven't told him that but he knows! He has to know. For God's sake _he _imprinted on _me!_

I found him sulking on the sofa. It's ten o'clock at night and I'm tired. It's been a long day with everyone training, both physically and to strengthen whatever gifts may help them. I toss my bag on the table, followed by my coat. Jacob still hasn't looked up.

"Hey," I say.

"Hey." He doesn't get up so I walk closer. The kitchen and living room are separated by nothing more than a counter half the length of the room. I lean against it. I've made it half the way, he can make the rest.

"So, you're still sulking I see," I say.

"I'm not sulking," he replies looking down at the beer bottle in his hands.

"Then what are you doing?"

"Fuming."

"Oh, well _that's _better." I roll my eyes.

"Where Nahuel?" Jacob asks, still not looking up at me.

"I don't know," I shrug. "Do I look like his babysitter?"

"Lately you've looked more like his girlfriend," Jacob scowled.

I sigh. "Of for the love of God. You're mad because I _talk _to him!"

"He wants to do a lot more than talk," Jacob says, finally looking at me. His dark eyes are devoid of any humour and his thick brows are pulled down and together by his frown.

"Well, I don't!" I say, my voice getting louder. "And it may have escaped your notice, Jacob, but this isn't a harem – just because a guy likes a girl doesn't mean she has to have sex with him. Actually, that's what I wanted from _you. _That's why I'm _here, _putting up this crap,instead of at home _sleeping."_

Jacob gets up and walks past me, putting his empty beer bottle on the counter by the sink and grabbing another from the fridge. "No, thanks," he says, taking a long swig from the bottle.

I turn to look at him, disbelief all over my face. "_No, thanks? _What the hell does that mean?"

"It means I don't want to."

"Fine." I grab my coat and bag. "If you want to be like this then _fine._ I'll see you tomorrow, Jacob."

He grabs my arm as I shove past him. "But I don't want you to go either."

"Then what do you want."

"Everything else in a relationship that _isn't _sex."

"I'm tired, Jacob," I say, rubbing out the frown lines on my forehead. "In four days, we may not even be here. After spending all my time at revolution headquarters I was hoping to be in the one place that feels anything like home, with the one person that never walked out on me that's still around. Since all _you _want to do is give me a hard time, I'm going back to the house, to be surrounded by the stuff that reminds me of Charlie and cry myself to sleep, like I do every time you're not there. Okay?"

I go to move towards the door but Jacob won't let go of my arm. Instead he pulls me closer, his hands on my shoulders. I really don't want to look at him so I look down at the floor instead.

"Don't go," he says gently, the tension leaving him.

"Why shouldn't I? You obviously don't want me here," I say, ashamed of how close to tears I am.

"Of course I want you here. I'll always want you."

Why does he have to be sweet when I want to be mad at him?

"Then why are you giving me a hard time all the time?" I ask miserably.

"Because Nahuel doesn't stay still long enough for me to yell at him, "Jacob glares. "I really don't like the way he spends all his time with you. I _hate _the way he spends it looking at your breasts."

"Why do you think he moves so fast? He doesn't want you to eat him!"

"I wouldn't do him that service – I'd tear apart, let him heal, then tear him apart all over again." Jacob's hand tightened on my arm in his anger.

"Are you going caveman on me?"

"Yes. Me hate hybrid dude."

"Cute," I say witheringly.

"I always thought so." Finally Jacob smiles at me then rests his forehead on mine. "I'm sorry I've been giving you a hard time lately."

"I'm sorry I haven't been doing anything with you but getting you naked."

"I don't mind it that much."

"Really?" I raise one eyebrow.

"Okay. The guy has to admit it, you and me being only about sex did start to bother me."

"Somehow, I noticed."

He pulls me close and I'm engulfed in his embrace. The werewolves are the only ones that aren't cold to me. And now the other hybrids, too.

I've missed him so much the last few days. Close never seems to be close enough until he's inside me.

"Jake?"

"Yeah?"

"Can you hold me?"

"I am holding you, baby."

"All night."

"Yes, I can. I want to." Jacob picks me up and carries me to his bed. He undresses me slowly until I'm left in only my panties and vest. Then he undresses himself until he is left in only his boxers. We get into bed and he pulls me close; it feels like every inch of me is touching some part of him. He's massive. Immoveable. My safe harbour. The shield wall breaks and the tears stream down my cheeks.

"Hey, hey." Jacob wipes away my tears away with his fingertips. "What's this? Nessie, what's wrong?" His other arm tightens around me, somehow bringing me enough closer to him.

"I don't know," I gulp, shaking my head.

"Why don't you tell me everything and we'll figure it out together?"

This makes me cry harder. Jacob's look goes from concerned to downright worried. "Nessie, talk to me. You have to talk to me!"

"I love you," I manage to choke out.

"And this makes you sad?"

"No." I gulp. I must look real attractive right now, puffy eyed and runny nosed but Jacob doesn't notice.

"Then what?"

"You shouldn't be with me." I swallow – it doesn't move the lump in my throat so I try speaking through it again. "You should be with someone normal and nice and someone that doesn't start a fucking war!" I dissolve into tears and Jacob hugs me. He's laughing. _He's laughing at me! _Bastard.

"Nessie, I love you. I would love you anyway but I _think_ that if I've imprinted on you, too, then I _should _be with you. You and no one else. Especially when you start a war – you need someone on your side. Someone who would die for you."

"That's the problem! I don't want you to die for me! I don't want you to die at all! I don't know how all this happened! I was angry and wanted revenge and now it's escalated. It's all my fault."

"No, it's not. Can't you feel it, Ness? All the hate for the Volturi brewing in this place? Some when, somehow, the Volturi were going to do something that pushed people over the edge, that proved they were there to further their own ambitions, not protect any of their kind. It just happened that Charlie was critical mass. There was nowhere else to go after this."

"I wish Charlie was here. I wish critical mass had been someone else. I wish we had never got there at all." It is easier to cling to someone when they're wearing a shirt but since Jake's topless I make do with gripping his shoulders, my nails biting into his russet skin.

"So do I, Nessie, but we can't change what happened. It's done now. All we can do is keep going." Jacob's hands are warm stroking up and down my back.

"Easier said than done." I murmur into his chest.

His head falls to rest on mine. "It usually is."

Conversation died out. We were silent for a long time. At some point, I fell asleep.

JacobPOV

I don't know how long I watched her as she slept in my arms. I know I fell asleep at some point but I don't know when – watching her went to dreaming about her and before I know which way was up it is morning. I wake up alone in bed with her side still warm next to me – the guys hate it that I imprinted on the only girl who can be held all night by a man with a temperature of 108.9 degrees and not die of heat stroke.

There are sounds of someone moving around my itty bitty kitchen, singing softly along with the radio. I pad out in my boxers – anyone I knew had seen me in less – and arrive at the most wonderful sight a man can see first thing in the morning: a barely dressed, insanely hot woman making me breakfast.

The panties and vest cover less in the light of day than they did when I was more interested in fixing the problems between us than furthering them by ignoring them. Now, my situation is: quickie then breakfast then more sex, or eat to conserve energy then have sex.

Shape shifter strength. I can handle it.

I grab her hips and press myself against her back. She can feel my intentions against her back. She turns in my arms and I get to see that smile for the first time today. "Hey, you," she says, reaching up to put her arms around my neck. She can't quite manage so I lift her onto the countertop. It has the added bonus of letting her wrap those long legs around my waist, too.

"Hey back at you." Greeting done I turn my attention to her neck. Her scent is making me crazy.

I take a look at the table – pancakes, scrambled eggs, bacon and sausage. "That stuff is microwavable, right?"

"Yeah. The meat's good cold."

"Excellent." She doesn't understand until I sweep her off the counter and carry her as fast as possible back to bed.

_Here you go! Yeah, so I figured that Nessie and Nauhel would have a lot to talk about since they are both hybrids that were NOT raised to think of humans as cattle and actually loved their mortal mothers. I figured this would piss Jacob off a bit, Nessie having this unique relationship with another bloke._


	18. Chapter 18

SethPOV

Right, I'm stuck in a tin can with a lot of wolves and a hell of a lot of vampires. Who smell. Sorry guys, the ones of you that don't creep me out are really quite nice but you all stink.

I hear someone chuckle from the cockpit – Edward, our current captain. Yeah, he's amassed over a hundred flight hours in the last week. On the frigging Playstation. Now, I'm usually a pretty chilled out guy, but this is a bit much even for me.

Aidan, or Adrian or whatever his name is that Leah imprinted on, was not happy to find out that we were leaving on what can only be described as a suicidal jaunt to the vamps' home turf. But he agreed to look after the women the pack had left preggers at home.

You can tell just by looking at him that Jacob wished he was leaving his imprintee at home – he is the only one bringing his imprinted with him. Everyone else either hasn't imprinted or left them behind.

Not Jake, he's got everything riding on this. He knows that he could lose her. Or she could lose him. Jacob is honest enough to admit that he hopes he dies instead of Nessie – he says he wouldn't be able to survive that pain.

Nessie thumped him and asked him what made him think that she could. It was alright though – Jacob's arm got undislocated...relocated...put back in and he's fine again.

Things are uberly weird right now, though. Mom and Billy are a mess at home – took Charlie's death real hard. They keep blaming themselves, saying if they had just accepted Charlie and Nessie when they first went to Billy that none of this would have happened. Personally, I think Mom had a bit of a thing for Charlie when he turned up again looking like frigging Rambo. He didn't give her the time of day, though. Apparently, when it comes to family, there are no second chances with Charlie Swan.

Now he's gone.

If he's with you, Dad, look after him, yeah? Still love you. Maybe I'll be seeing you soon, but I hope not, old man. I still got things to do here!

Sam's on the phone to Emily, as he has been ever since Edward said it was okay to, rushing through a goodbye. Out of nowhere, Leah holds out her hand. "Let me talk to her," she says.

Sam hesitates but gives Leah the phone. The wolves brace themselves.

"Hey, Em. Yeah, it's Lee Lee. No, I'm fine. I just...I love you, Em. In case anything happens, I just wanted you to know that." Leah laughs, tears welling up in her eyes. "Yeah, yeah, it took me a while. I loved you the whole time, too. Listen, can you do something for me? Can you look after Aidan? Just make sure he's not freaking out. And if anything does happen to me just...tell him I would have said yes."

Sam and me boggle at this. Damn, Aidan got style – proposing to a girl when she's about to go off to almost certain death against vampire royalty! Nice one, dude!

Leah laughs again. "Yeah," she looks at Sam, "yeah, I'll bring him home, don't worry, Em. You just keep looking out for the babies on your end and I'll take care of the seven foot babies on mine." Leah tells Emily she loves her one last time then hands the phone to me.

I look really confused until Leah shakes the phone then rolls her eyes when I take it.

"Em?" I ask.

"Hey, Seth, how you holding up?" Emily's sweet voice comes over the phone.

"Uh, okay, I guess," I say, scratching at the armrest of my seat. "We're all sort of freaking out doing okay. Hey, Em?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you ever get scared?" I ask, with no idea where this is coming from. Suddenly everyone in the plane is listening to me, looking at me. "Not like shit-I'm-gonna-die, but like, I'm never going to be the same person after this. I just got that kind of feeling. Like we're on the edge of something big, like no matter what happens there's no going back, it's all going to change. You ever felt like that?"

"Yeah," Emily says. "I've felt like that before. When I met Sam. I took one look at him and knew my life would never be the same. _I_ would never be the same."

"I hope we get the same kind of happy ending," I mutter.

"You will, Seth. I'll be seeing you all real soon, I truly believe that," Emily says.

I nod, even though I'm on the phone and she can't see me. "I hope so, Em. See ya."

"Love ya, Sunshine."

"Love ya, Emmy."

I hand the phone back to Sam and lean back in my seat, suddenly feeling so much older than the twenty-two years that I am, the twenty-six years I look.

Sam keeps looking at me as he says goodbye to Emily.

Paul doesn't call Rachel. He said his goodbyes to her and their kids before we got on the plane. He says he can't do it again.

So, now there's nothing to do but wait. Wait to live, wait to die. Wait for some miracle that will let us walk away from this.

But I know we won't. I look around the plane – this plane is the one with the pack and the Cullens on it. My giant, bizarre family. I love them.

I wonder who it is I'm seeing whole for the last time. Alive.

Aw, crap, we're descending. Almost at ground zero.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the vampire-werewolf D-Day. Programmes and collectibles will be available from the survivors if there are any.


	19. Chapter 19

_WOOO!!! We hit two hundred reviews, guys! That's awesome, thank you!_

_Please keep it up!_

_And back to the bloodshed._

CarlislePOV

It was horrible. The blood. The screaming. The death.

We landed the planes on the roof of Volterra castle – three of them all together. We disembarked and got inside quickly so the pack could change into their wolfen forms.

It was just after three. I knew from my days here that we had come the day before the Volturi herded in a score of innocent people to slaughter and fed from. Theoretically, they were at the weakest we could ever expect to find them.

We swept down a floor at a time, dispatching the strays swiftly, leaving small fires of burning vampire pieces. We got to the main doors leading to the hall where everyone else would be congregated.

Throwing open the doors, we flooded in, a hundred strong.

Many of the guard died quickly, unprepared. But then they started to fight back before we managed to start the fires. So we had to hold them off while trying to keep the pieces apart so the vampires did not regenerate.

Emmett was particularly good at this – he started beating the remaining Volturi vampires with various body parts. He seemed to enjoy himself.

Surprisingly, Nessie was as deadly as anyone else. Vampires and the wolves have built in defence mechanisms to kill vampires but Nessie has no such defences, one reason why no one was keen on her coming.

As Jasper pointed out, samurai blades look very nice and shiny but they won't do anything against a vampire's skin.

But it seems we underestimated Nessie's determination to avenge Charlie and be part of this fight.

I didn't truly understand when I saw Edward lick the honed edges of the blade but when Nessie swiped the blade through the air and decapitated one of the guard I got it – vampire venom was the only thing that damaged vampire skin, which is why is floods our mouths in a fight; it's not the teeth that does the true damage, but the _venom._

And Nessie was now wielding two venom-laced blades.

She lacked claws so had blades. She lacked venom so she stuck close to Edward, handing him a blade when the venom dried and protecting them both with vicious clawing and kicking while he was occupied.

They made a very impressive team. Emmett found it quite hilarious, proclaiming Nessie the Ninja dhampir. I must admit, it was rather mind-blowing to see this tiny thing that looked so like sweet Bella dealing death like an Amazon.

EsmePOV

I regret that it came to this.

But it did. And they will not take any more family from me.

Everyone says that my _gift _is to love passionately. But no one thinks of the other side of the coin – the feeling when I lose someone. The pain of losing my baby caused me to commit suicide; I could not take the pain.

And now everyone I love is in this room, fighting for their lives. I have no choice but to defend them ruthlessly.

We told everyone of the Volturi's powers before we left. Nessie is making a move for Renata now. She is the only that has any chance of killing her. And if Renata is gone then Aro is left vulnerable. We must kill him or all this will be in vain.

My claws sink into the vampire trying to seek up on Rose. I spin him around and rip his throat out with my teeth. The sound of tearing granite makes Rose turn, her eyes widening at the sight of us only inches from her. Nodding, she helps me dismember this one and throw his body on the fire.

Around us, the family – the Cullens, the Denali clan and the wolves – are mercifully all still alive. From the looks of it, it is because we trained together and the bonds of love, not blood, make us take bigger risks, bigger sacrifices for our own. But then there is always another of us to protect _that _one. I see Carlisle run in front of Alice to protect her from Demitri only to have Jasper catch Demitri by the collar from behind and throw him into the wall with all his might.

The wall cracks under the force and the room trembles as Demitri falls to the floor. Carlisle and Jasper fall on him and tear him apart, throwing the pieces into various fires.

Emmett and Rose are fighting five vampires at once and I sprint to help them. One of them is Jane. She sends all three of us screaming to the floor with a look. I hear Carlisle howl my name and I look up to see him looking as animalistic and murderous as I ever have.

"NESSIE!" he bellows, pointing to Jane.

Nessie turns and zeros in on Jane who smirks, beckoning her with a hand gesture. Nessie looks at the three of us on the floor and starts towards Jane, not bothering with anyone in between them other than to toss them out of the way.

"You know I'll kill Aro," Nessie yells over the din to Jane.

"I will never let you hurt my master," Jane says imperiously, tilting her chin to look down her nose at Nessie.

"Over your dead body, right?" Nessie asks, spinning the blades into a whirl.

"Exactly," Jane says confidently.

"Bitch, I was hoping you'd say that," Nessie says with furious glee. She flicks out one hand and the blade goes spinning end over end horizontally at Jane who plucks it out of the air.

"Is that it?" Jane asks, tossing the blade to the floor with a clatter.

"Not even," Nessie says through gritted teeth.

She and Jane clash, trading titanic blows. Jane quickly gains the upper hand and tosses Nessie across the room into a group of wolves devouring Marcus.

"Silly little girl," Jane says, smiling, "you should have known you could never defeat me."

"She did," says a voice behind Jane.

Edward.

Nessie had successfully distracted Jane long enough for Edward to finish off his vampire and get to Jane, leaving Aro open for Nessie.

Jane lunges but Edward has always been faster. He knocks her hands out of the way and his teeth fasten on her throat. I can tell from the way he is twitching and wincing that Jane is using her power on him.

But he is still on his feet.

And then Jane isn't. With a sickening sucking sound, Edward wrenches his teeth from Jane's neck, a hunk of vampire flesh between his powerful jaws. Grabbing her head in one hand and her neck in the other, Edward pulls, beheading Jane with a single rip. He tosses the head on the nearest fire then looks up.

Whatever he sees clearly terrifies him. His eyes go wide and his jaw slackens. He throws the body aside and blurs to the other side of the room.

Aro has Nessie. She retrieved her second blade and is hacking and slashing at the last remaining vampire elder. With a swipe, Nessie finally manages to cut off Aro's hand. But the other one is still wrapped tightly around her throat and Nessie needs to breath.

Edward throws himself at Aro with a roar, tackling the older vampire to the ground. Nessie goes sliding across the floor, coughing and sucking in great lungfuls of air.

Most of the Volturi and the southern covens are dead. Carlisle will mourn them all the same, but I can't help but feel that it is for the best that those two groups of die-hards wiped each other out.

Some of the nomads are still standing – Amun is dead and his mate, Kebi, is quickly being pulled apart, crazed and dangerous in her grief. Amun's protégée, Benjamin, and his mate, Tia, are still alive and preventing Alistair from opening the double doors – if we let any escape...

Charlotte and Peter are helping Kate who seems to be yelling at Garrett while putting him back together. Something about turning her back for five seconds and him being stupid...

As soon as Garrett has both his hands again he pulls Kate close and kisses her passionately. Tanya yells at them that this isn't the time but is distracted by the sight of a Volturi guard ripping Irina in half and tossing her on the bonfires. Tanya screams in grief but the flames are too high now, too fierce and Irina is quickly lost.

Tanya and Kate lose it and quickly tear through the few remaining Volturi vampires. Nothing that can kill but they weaken the enemy force considerably with their Valkyrie fury. The dozen Volturi vampires are quickly rounded up and dispatched.

Then an unearthly shriek rents the air. A sound I have heard only once and had hoped never to hear again.

All eyes turn to Nessie.

It transpired that Aro had decided on a little poetic justice – killing Nessie with her own knives. He had snatched them up but Edward had done what any father would have done: he pushed Nessie out of the way and took the hit. Two short swords directly to the chest, the venom weakening him, the force of Aro's thrust pushing them into Edward's torso up to the hilt.

"You never should have come here," Aro tells Nessie evilly as he tugs the knives out of Edward who crumples to the floor at Aro's feet.

"It's okay, baby girl," Edward says, struggling, but managing, to focus on Nessie. He's so weak. The venom in the wounds are keeping them open, not letting him heal.

"That's it, Edward, say goodbye to your child," Aro says, gripping Edward's head.

"DAD!" Nessie yells, reaching for him but Carlisle grabs her around the middle, not letting go even when Nessie thrashes and writhes in his arms, desperate to get to her father – he knows it is already too late.

Edward's smile is brilliant and heartbreaking – Nessie called him 'Dad'.

In a sickening moment I realise that was what Edward was holding out for – acceptance. Now...

...Edward dies happily. Aro tears his head off but nothing can erase that look of inner harmony that my son never achieved in his long life.

Nessie is screaming but it is Emmett and Jasper who act. They come at Aro from opposite sides, wild with grief and horrifying in their rage. They take Aro apart piece by piece, one mouthful at a time. It takes a long time and from Aro's screams his is the most painful death, but he does not suffer long enough, not for any of us.

It is hard to think right now. Looking around I am amazed to see how few our family have lost. We all have cuts and broken bones that will be healed in a few days. Out of our family we lost only Edward, Irina and Brady.

Three out of nineteen. Compared to others we have come out relatively unscathed.

So why do I feel so rendered and broken? My son, my friend and my ally. Brady was a good guy, one of the youngest, the kid was only twenty. At least he had not imprinted. None of the imprinters died, thank god. I don't think I could have gone home and told a person that their one true, everlasting love was dead. I wouldn't be able to be the one to hurt them like that.

Jasper is standing alone, at the edges as always. His eyes are red from the venom in them. I think that, if we could cry, Jasper would be sobbing. Everyone is heartbroken and Jasper has to feel it all, on top of his own pain.

So strong, so stoic, this empathic child of mine. No one knows what a whirlwind he lives in. I walk to him and pull him close. The soldier in him wants to pull away, and he starts to, but the broken man inside doesn't. He clings closer, burying his head in the curve of my shoulder and lets me rest my cheek on his head, stroking his back and whispering to him like any of my promises that it will all be okay will come true.

He knows they won't. He can feel my pain, my sorrow and still he holds on.

We burn Volturi castle to the ground, adding to the fires that burned away our loved ones and our enemies. It's so hard to leave them but their bodies are gone. Only Brady's remained, carefully wrapped up in a curtain by Sam and hoisted on the pack's shoulders – none of them wanted to be left out of carrying their brother.

As we move through the corridor we throw lighters into the rooms, their tiny flames unerringly landing on the curtains or beds. Anything that the fire can catch hold of easily. We embark on the planes, the Denalis, now including Garrett, on one bound to Alaska, the remaining nomads on the second to anywhere, and us on the third to go home. To bury Brady and remember Edward.

You would think there was the sound of crying on the plane, but there isn't. It's all very quiet. People sit back in seats, overwhelmed by grief and injury, beyond crying, lost in their own worlds.

It will come. In time, the tears, the anger, the useless bargains and reprimands, the what-if's and the maybes. But for now, all is quiet. All is still. All is so very different. And it hurts.


	20. Chapter 20

_So, this is a little different because it was the first thing I ever wrote for this story. It may not be the ending you guys wanted for Bella and Edward but I did say that they would be together in the end...I just didn't say they'd be _alive.

XXX

'Edward?' There was a soft voice and a hand on his shoulder, shaking him gently. 'Edward, can you hear? Can you wake up? Edward!' There was a touch of desperation in the angel's voice now. Slowly, Edward opened his eyes.

He opened and closed the rapidly a few times, refusing to believe what he saw. It was impossible, it could not be her. If he could dream this would have been the face that would have haunted him for the last ten years. The most beautiful sight he had ever seen, the one that shattered his heart to see but left him empty when he did _not_ see it.

Truly, he must be damned.

'Bella?' His velvet voice was huskier than normal – emotion caused a lump in his throat. Edward swallowed.

The angel smiled – he knew that smile. That had been the smile directed at him a thousand times for a few short months of his existence. The only months he had been alive.

'Am I in Hell? Is this purgatory? Seeing you, knowing what I have done?'

'No, my love. Not Hell. This is the afterlife. Heaven. I told you, you would never be sent to Hell, you are too good.' Bella caressed his face and Edward leant into her hand, unable to believe he was feeling her again.

'No, I am not. Oh, Bella, I am so sorry.' Tears slid down Edward's face but he was so consumed by his pain that he did not notice. He felt arms slide around him, sitting him up. Bella pulled him close, resting his head on her shoulder, her cheek on top of his head. She rocked him as he wept.

'Shhh, love. Do not apologise. You gave me the most beautiful gift in the world. You gave us our daughter.'

'And then left you to die and she to be all alone after Charlie died. I killed you.' Edward wrapped his arms tight around her middle.

'You gave me eternal life. Not the way I was angling for I'll admit.' Edward raised his head to see a wry smile cross his love's face. 'I had everything I wanted. I would have lived forever for you, but I would have given up eternity, everything I wanted, for _her_.'

'She is beautiful. She looks just like you.'

'Really? From here she looks more like you.'

'You can see her?'

'I can see everything. This is Heaven and I am, well,' Bella looked at him sheepishly,' well, I was kind of made Cullen/Swan family guardian angel. You have _no idea _how stubborn you all are! Or how _long _it took me to get you to meet!'

'That was you?' Bella nodded. 'That voice in my head was _you? _I thought I was going insane. No one in a three-hundred mile radius and I'm being told to go to Minnesota!'

'Yeah, well, you took your sweet time to listen didn't you? You have one thick skull to get through. I thought I'd have to use the cosmic hatchet!'

'Cosmic hatchet?'

'Meteorite. You think the angels just want to give you lot a pretty light show?' Bella stood and held out her hand. Without hesitation, Edward took it and she pulled him to his feet. She was surprisingly strong.

She laughed when he looked down at his hand as though it was a foreign object. 'It takes some getting used to but, I am afraid to say, you are no longer a vampire. You, like the rest of us, are simply dead.'

'No thirst?' Bella shook her head.

'No speed, or strength?' Again Bella shook her head. 'No need. You're dead. Just give a think and you are there. Try it.'

For the first time, Edward looked around him. They were in their meadow. It was even more beautiful than the earthly one. The sun was shining, but when Edward looked down at himself he did not see sparkles. He did not glitter like the unchangeable, unfeeling diamond he had been on Earth. For the first time, he was just a man standing in front of the woman he loved, not terrified that the next he touched her would be the time he broke her.

Edward grabbed Bella and pulled her close. 'What are you doing?' she asked.

'Testing a theory,' he smiled and bent his mouth to hers.

Her lips were soft, but not yielding like they had been, not the constant reminder that he must be careful. He gripped her arms more firmly and hers curled upwards to grab his elbows so she could steady herself. Edward traced her lower lip with his tongue and Bella gladly opened her mouth for him. His tongue swept inside – she was still as sweet as ever.

He finally pulled away and they both took ragged breaths. He was smug to see her lips were red and swollen from the attention. His own throbbed as the blood rushed back to them.

Bella gave a shaky laugh. 'Not the theory I was going to get you to test but that was ... good.' She laughed again, at herself this time.

A sudden pain ripped through Edward forcing him to his knees. He curled in on himself as Bella crouched next to him, her hands once again gripping his shoulders.

Edward tried to breathe through the pain, but it was too excruciating. 'What – what's happening?'

'It's your family. They have just learned of your death.'

'So this is...?'

'Grief, yes.' Bella nodded her head, looking sympathetic.

'Oh God, Bella!' He screamed her name. All he had wanted since leaving her was to die. He had often thought of, even planned his death. But for him that was the end. He knew – thought he had known – there was no afterlife for a monster like him so there could only be nothingness. Between the constant, unrelenting agony of loving Bella and being without her, and the oblivion death would bring, he wanted oblivion. Anything not to see her face every time he closed his eyes; not to yearn for the sound of her voice, her heartbeat; the feel of her skin.

He had never thought what his death would mean. For him, it meant nothing, a release from the torment of unfulfilled love. But for his family?

'What have I done?' Tears streamed down his face afresh. 'Esme, Alice, Carlisle.' How could he cause such anguish in such loving, tender souls?

'You died, Edward. Everyone does. Even immortals, eventually.'

'But their pain.' It washed over him again. This wave was more aggressive than the first, laced with fury and denial. 'Rose, Emmett, Jasper.' The worse was to come.

The third wave felt like he was being submerged in acid. Every pore, every cell burned. His brain could not process such emotion. An agonised scream tore its way out of his lungs and Edward slumped sideways onto the grass. Bella knelt and cradled his head in her lap, stroking his hair and whispers nonsense words of comfort. 'Nessie?'

Bella nodded, 'the pain of your own children is always the worst. You brought them into that world; they are half of yourself so it is the most difficult separation.'

'Separation? No! I do not want _separation_! I want my family! I want my daughter!' Edward had leapt to his feet and rounded on Bella in a fury. His abused brain rebelled against the sudden movement and his head swam.

Bella caught him as he stumbled and held him steady. 'Edward, listen to me. I know this is hard, I have been through it too and all I wanted was to disappear, to be nothing so I did not have to feel the pain. But it is over now. This separation is necessary.'

Edward tore himself away. For the first time he hated Bella. No, not Bella, what Bella was saying. 'It is NOT necessary! I do not accept that!'

'Edward, you are dead. This pain is _your_ grief at losing _them_. This is moving on. One by one, the ties that bind are being cut. How do you think ghosts are made? They cannot deal with the pain so they return to Earth, thinking it will stop the pain. But it doesn't. It only intensifies with the disorientation. They do not belong there anymore but have rejected the next step. Their pain consumes them until only the anger remains. It turns them insane, makes them ghosts.'

Edward was shaking his head. 'Maybe, maybe with me it will be different, because I am – was – a vampire. I already died but still remained.'

Bella shook her head, 'it does not work that way. Your body died but your soul did not. It was sealed inside. Only by burning the body of a vampire can the soul be freed. This has happened to you. Edward, I am sorry, but it is truly over this time.'

Edward sank to his knees in mute horror – he had had a century of thinking he was immortal, yet only the last few years had meant anything to him. He had had only a few precious months with his daughter – most of them consumed by the pain and rage of Charlie's unexpected murder and the planning of vengeance.

He had wasted it. Time was the one thing he had always had and he had _wasted it._ He was stupid – a fool. If he had never left, if he had just been selfish and never left Bella to protect her, then he would have been there to save her. The irony burned in his gut and he laughed; it was a bitter, twisted laugh that made Bella look fearful.

"Edward? What ... why are you laughing?" She knelt beside him, peering into his eyes – now returned to their human green – as though the answer would be written in them.

But even as she asked the laughter turned to tears and Edward was sobbing once more. "I'm sorry, Bella. I'm so sorry. I thought it for the best but I just hurt you more – I killed you and I wasn't there for Nessie. Charlie had to raise her and the knowledge got him killed. I destroyed your family."

"_Our _family will heal.' Bella cupped Edward's face, trying to make him look at her but he refused. 'Charlie told me all about it when he got here – he's okay."

"Charlie's here?" Edward's head snapped up. Bella nodded. "Can I speak to him?" Bella nodded once more though she was confused by the request.

"Follow me," she stood and once more offered him her hand. He took it and together they walked out of the meadow and into the wood. Edward had no idea how long they walked – there was no sense of time in this place – but eventually the smell changed, and so did the light. He saw that the forest had subtly changed as they had moved and were now the woods at La Push. Edward knew that in a few moments – or steps, whatever – they would come out at the cliff. And so they did.

Waiting for them, at the cliff top, overlooking the sea, was Charlie Swan and Harry Clearwater. Bella glided over to her father and hugged him, then moved so she was next to Harry. Edward walked up, nervous at meeting the Chief once more, so he was surprised when Charlie put his arms around him and embraced him. "Thank you. I knew you'd keep her safe – I just didn't know how far you would go."

Edward returned the hug saying, "she was my child. I would have gone as far as necessary." They broke apart and shifted uncomfortably – what the hell do you do, as a guy, after hugging a dead man?

"Come, Bella. I think these two need to talk." Harry put his arm around Bella's shoulder and they moved away, following the path down to the beach. Edward took a step forward, but Charlie clapped a hand on his shoulder stopping him. "It's okay, Edward, she's not going anywhere. It's just that you and I do need to talk about some things. Bella's the guardian angel, but she's done her part now. It was decided that I would be better at ... introducing you to all this than her. I understand what it's like to lose a child so short after meeting them again. But you have to understand, it's not really like that – they're not really gone, not for us. You can see and guide them whenever you want to – they might even listen better to you when you're dead."

"But I don't want to leave," Edward said stubbornly.

"Yes, you did." As always, Charlie was direct. "In the instant of death, you welcomed it. You knew it would cost you your life to save your daughter and you paid the price gladly. You have wanted to die for so long, but for the wrong reasons – you wanted to end something, not start it. Your death will mean something – it will bring them all together. Both the Cullens and the La Push pack have lost someone dear to them, and Nessie too – being part of both, she has lost the most. They will turn to each other for comfort and help, and they will not be disappointed. You will be remembered."

"Who else?" Edward asked, not really wanting to know.

"Irina. And Brady," Charlie said sadly. "Your deaths pushed everyone to the edge and they fought like never before. The Volturi do not understand love and so had no chance against the power of grief. They were destroyed, their castle burnt to ash."

"We won?" Edward began to smile – a slow burner that began with barely the edges of his lips moving and ended in a grin of Cheshire cat proportions.

Charlie nodded. "You won – by a landslide I may add. The vampires no longer have anyone tracking their movements, but since life is so much easier when no one is aware of their presence, no one is going to tell the secret."

"What about the southern clans?" Edward had not really paid attention to them during the battle, to intent on protecting his own.

"The very few survivors have decided to disperse – the world seems so much larger now there is no ruling class. Besides, they got a good look at the wolves that would be coming after them if any of them starting building empires again."

"Bella said I could see Nessie ... before, in the meadow." Edward suddenly remembered.

An amused smile came across Charlie's face. "Yes, I wondered when we would get back to that. Well, come on then." He led the way down the path to the beach, Edward following behind, tripping and sliding in his haste. "Calm down, Edward," Charlie laughed, "it will still be there when we get there, no matter how long we take – time does not exist here."

"Why not?" that had been puzzling Edward, and throwing him off, ever since he got there.

Charlie shrugged, "don't need it."

They made it to the beach, which was mostly deserted. There was Harry, Bella, Irina, Brady – both of whom still looked as put out as Edward felt – Sarah Black (Jacob's mother) and Edward's own parents.

"Mother, Father?" The man and woman that rushed towards him were dressed in the clothes of the time they had died. It had been so distinctly separate, his life as a human and his life as a vampire that he had never really reconciled them. To see his father in a three piece suit, complete with pocket watch, and his mother in a floor length dress, while he stood in his jeans and layers of T-shirt and pullover, was very strange. It only heightened the feeling that he did not belong with them. The comparison was too much to ignore. They had not been a part of his life for so long and he could not even remember them; Edward found himself not knowing what to say. He went to hug his mother but his arms just swung back and forth, and his feet did not move at all. "I don't really understand. I'm a little confused," Edward admitted.

"We know it must be difficult, son." No, the difficult thing was hearing Edward Masen Senior calling him son – he did not sound at all like Carlisle, with a low, gravelly voice, and it did not feel right to Edward.

"Yes, but ... I really don't know what to do. I mean, you're my parents, I know that, it's just I don't _remember_ that." Edward dragged his hand through his hair, messing it up, in a movement so familiar to his mother. Elizabeth Mason went to pat his hair down as she always had while they had lived, but Edward ducked away, not used to mothering from anyone but Esme.

Tears welled up in Elizabeth Mason's eyes and Edward felt like a cad for hurting her.

"This might help – it's what I've been _trying _to get you to see since the meadow." Bella tugged on his hand and led him to the water's edge. "Well, go on then." She gave him a little push and Edward stepped into the water. "Further." Edward became to wade, the water up to his knees.

He turned around to look at Bella. "When do I know to stop?"

"You'll know," she said cryptically, not instilling great confidence in him but he continued when she waved him on.

Edward walked until it was up to his chest. Then he felt the pull and he disappeared below the waves. Water rushed around him, but there was no instinct to panic, or to try to breath. He let the water moved over and around him, not really knowing what to expect. He spun in a circle, just for something to do, wondering why he was taking a swim when the love of his – well, not life, but of his _something _– was waiting for him on the shore.

As he spun he thought it saw something. He spun again, trying to work out what direction the whatever-it-was had come from. Light danced through the waves and he saw _images _appearing, like holograms. Faces, people; it was all very strange. He swam to one particular ray of light. As soon as he broke the light's path, he was blown into a million pieces; it was not painful – he was dead so nothing was painful anymore – but it was intensely disorientating. When he came back together again, he saw he was standing in the middle of a room that looked like it was the set for a Dickens' novel. On the bed was a bronze haired woman with a bundle in her arms, a man was sat on the bed next to her, his hand outstretched to touch the bundle.

"Oh, sorry. I did not mean to interrupt." Edward looked at them – they had not reacted at all to his presence, in fact, the woman had sighed, totally content, as she gazed lovingly at the thing in her arms.

"What shall we call him?" the man asked.

"Edward, after his father." The woman smiled and kissed the man's bemused expression. Disbelief turned to pride until the man – Edward – looked like he would burst with it.

"Edward." the father took the baby from the woman. "Welcome to the world, Edward Anthony Masen Junior." The baby gurgled and the man smiled, overcome with joy.

_No freaking way, _Edward thought_. This is the aftermath of my birth – this is Chicago 1901! _

To prove his theory, Edward did something he did not think he had ever done – he jumped and began bouncing on the bed. Higher and higher he bounced and the little family did nothing – both parents were completely focused on the baby, not noticing the strangely dressed teenager using their bed for a trampoline.

_Right, _thoughtEdward, stopping abruptly – the Masons did nothing_. That settles it. _

Without warning, the room spun and when it stopped Edward found he was in a park of some kind. The same woman, Elizabeth Masen, was sat on a bench, watching indulgently as her two Edwards lay on a blanket, pointing out cloud shapes. The boy Edward could only be a few years old – five, or six at most.

_This is very weird, _Edward thought._ I am watching the events of my life – my human life._

And so he did. He would watch for a while before the surroundings would spin again, and he would be somewhere knew. Birthdays, Christmases, Thanksgivings, and ordinary days too, Edward saw them all and with each clip, he would remember more of his life. He watched himself grow until he knew he was nearing the end. He watched a blazing argument between himself and his father, as his mother watched on in tears.

_I wanted to be a soldier, _Edwardremembered_. I wanted to sign up and fight the good fight. _

Then the influenza struck and he watched as first his father, then his mother died. His father was quick, but his mother lingered, making sure her son was safe. Edward watched her finally fade away, before being taken to the morgue by Carlisle. He followed as Carlisle came back to him and snuck him to his house. He watched at Carlisle him.

_Ooh, it seems even worse from this angle,_ Edward thought, putting his hand to his neck where the teeth marks had long since healed, remembering the pain.

Carlisle stayed with him for the whole three days. Then Edward Cullen awoke as a vampire.

The room spun and when it stopped, Edward found himself again on the beach, waist deep in the sea.

He waded out and over to his parents, so intent on getting to them he never noticed his clothes were dry. He threw his arms around them both and they hugged him back. "I'm so sorry." He pulled away and looked at Edward Sr. "Father, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to argue so much with you. I know you loved me, but I wanted to be a soldier. I was not like you, I had not found something worth living for – I had hoped the War would give me some purpose, some direction so I could make you both proud. Instead, I made you angry."

His mother stroked his face and Edward leaned into the caress. "We were not angry, love, we were worried. Our only child, our son, talking about going off to war. I was so scared of losing you."

"And we lost each other anyway," Edward said sadly.

"We have been here, the whole time." Edward Sr spoke – after the memories Edward was no longer disconcerted by his human father's voice. He felt comforted, remembering how safe the deep, husky voice had made him feel, when his father, sounding so sure, had assured him there were no monster under his bed as a child. "We have watched as you grew. And you did grow Edward. When you met Bella, you changed. We were worried that you were too young when you were transformed, that you were not ready. We did not realise you were just waiting for her." He smiled kindly at Bella, who thread her arms around one of Edward's and leant her head on his shoulder.

"Now for the fun part." Charlie addressed the group. "The part we have _finally got to._"

"I thought that I just did it. Wasn't that what Bella was talking about?" Edward frowned.

"No, that was an ... initiation process, for lack of better term. Everyone has baggage they have to deal with when they first get here."

"Think of it as a baptism, Edward," said Bella when he still looked confused. "It's really the only way to get your head around it – washing away the vestiges of your life, so you can truly join the afterlife."

Okay, baptism made sense to Edward, sort of.

He turned to Bella, "so now I get to understand what you said about seeing everything?" She nodded. "The whole meteorites bit?" She grinned and nodded again. "Okay, bring on the light show."

The whole group walked up the beach and turned to look at the horizon.

"So, what's –" Edward began.

"Shh, just watch," said Bella, taking his hand. "And listen." The sun began to set, strewing the water with pinks and gold, oranges and reds.

"Wow," Irina breathed. She sounded awestruck, and younger than Edward had ever heard her before.

The light danced and, as the sun hit the water, wave of light rippled over the surface of the waves, rolling over them. When his sight returned and he blinked light spots out of his vision, Edward found he could see everything from where he stood.

"What was that?" he asked.

Bella shrugged delicately. "We don't know, we never asked. We call it the Gateway. The dying sun's light let's you glimpse the living. At night, while they sleep, we watch over them."

Bella gripped his hand, "come on, let's get to Billy's – that's where everyone is."

The group moved silently, gliding through La Push until they reached Billy's. They walked inside and saw the tribe and the Cullens, and Nessie, all gathered. There was clearly not enough room but no one wanted to go anywhere else. They all leant on each other, tears pouring down the faces of those who could cry as they remembered those they had lost. Everyone had a drink to toast the dead – the Cullens' were still full, but the rest were quickly getting to the bottom of their glasses.

It was a strange feeling – no matter how close Edward got, he felt a divide between himself and the living, like there was a one way mirror between them and only he could see out.

"It's the veil," Bella said, before he could ask. "It's hard, being this close, but not being able to touch."

"It makes me feel like I might as well be on the other side of the world, for all the good I'm doing." He looked down at Nessie, curled up, looking tiny on Jacob's lap. Tears were falling thick and fast and she had long since given up trying to wipe them away. Jacob had his cheek resting on her head and his tears made her hair as wet as her tears made his chest. They clung to each other, as though terrified the other would disappear if they let go. "What do I do?" Edward looked helplessly at Bella.

"Talk to her."

"And tell her what?" The pain of watching his child grieving grew in Edward's chest – so the dead felt pain after all.

Bella shrugged. "Whatever you want, whatever you need to. Consciously, she can't hear you, but it is getting through, I promise."

Feeling stupid, Edward knelt down and laid his hand on top of Nessie and Jacob's entwined ones. He looked over at Brady, who was talking to a weeping Collin, but he could not hear him clearly.

Irina looked around but her family was not present. Closing her eyes, Irina focused on them and disappeared.

"What you tell them is theirs to hear, and yours to share," Bella told him. "Tell her what's in your heart, Edward. She has a right to know." Then she backed away, leaning into Charlie who kissed her head – at least one small part of the family reunited.

And so Edward spoke, telling his daughter of the first time he saw her mother, his reaction of running away and then coming back. Of how amazed he was that she had loved him in return. How scared he was when James had Bella, and then when Jasper attacked her, how he knew he had to let her go. He told of the empty years before Bella, and the torturous years after her. He told Nessie of hearing Bella's lullaby after all that time sure that it was a sign, of the final year with his family before he returned to Forks. Of finding her and realising that, no matter how much he had messed it up, and how differently he would have done things if he could do them again, his life had meant something – he had helped create something prefect, something unregrettable. He had helped create Nessie, and that was worth the pain, though he wished he could have been a part of her life from the beginning, had more time than the few, furious final months. He spoke until the sun rose, and the mourners began to move again.

He spoke for hours, until the twilight hours were over and the dawn approached.

"It's time to go Edward." Bella took his hand and he unwillingly walked to the beach. The sun rose and the light flashed and they were back to the spirit plane, no longer amongst the living.

"You can see her you know, whenever you want." Bella took him to the cliffs and looking down at the water crashing below, they saw. They saw the Cullens, the tribe and Nessie get back on their feet and pick up the threads of their old lives. They watched as Nessie married Jacob. They watched over her pregnancies and the births of their grandchildren. They spent their nights in the nursery, watching their grandchildren dream, singing softly and lulling them back to sleep when they were disturbed.

The dead watched as those left behind joined them one by one. The years past and the beach got more crowded. Eventually, it was the end of all things and the last of the large family was returned to the fold – the ageless Cullens, and Nessie and Jacob Black, their vampiric shape-shifter descendants.

The night after the end, Bella and Edward sat on the cliffs, watching their family, no vampire/human/shape-shifter distinction; all just harmonious dead. "See, Edward. Death comes to us all, even the immortal. No separation lasts forever."

He nodded – there was no need to speak this night; Bella was wrapped in his arms and the family was all once again whole.

No, no separation lasted forever.

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_The end! Maybe. I wasn't sure after I wrote the other chapters. If you think there needs to be a filler between the chapter nineteen and this one then let me know when you review and I'll write it!_

_Reviews are good, so write them. Now._


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